Securing Optical Networks for the Enterprise

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Gone are the days when optical networking was considered to be the domain of only the elite service provider community, optical technology is today helping a number of government and military agencies, research institutions, and enterprises to meet their growing bandwidth and availability requirements on a continuous basis.

This popular adoption of optical networking should surely be attributed to the expanded capabilities of next-generation optical platforms at various levels within an enterprise environment. This eventually offers integrated IP services, storage-extension capabilities, and support for video applications, next-generation platforms that provide an attractive solution for deploying highly available, high-speed, multiservice infrastructures.

Working as a huge advantage which automatically works on their side, these platforms not only bring tremendous flexibility and improved network efficiency—they also provide the much needed opportunity to device and strategize a better coordinated, consistent, and proactive approach to optical networking security.

Not very long ago, optical networking solutions, products and equipment were often protected simply by being kept in locked cages or facilities with restricted physical access. But because today’s optical platforms are deployed in more open environments and more closely integrated with the rest of an organization’s network, physical protection alone is not enough.

Integrated optical and IP environments demand new security considerations beyond the inherent security benefits of optical technology. Hence as a result, organizations must ensure that optical platforms are part of an end-to-end network security strategy.

Securing Optical Networks

Security considerations for optical networks have historically been treated differently than copper networks. In the yesteryears, optical networks were different from more open copper networks. On the other hand, today, the optical-networking paradigm has shifted to a different direction, as optical networks have become more integrated with a move towards an all IP era.

Hence as a result enterprise customers can today provision optical wavelengths with the same ease and flexibility they would use to provision traditional Ethernet or voice services. However, this paradigm shift also exposes optical networks to new vulnerabilities, including - Increased exposure towards physical loss of equipment etc. they are also getting exposed towards Internet and are vulnerable to the same types of attacks as any other network element.

In today’s scenario, optical networks are integrated, and must be just as secure as every other network element in order to reap the full benefits of this side of networking for an enterprise community.