Aiming for secure big data, ADVA puts line-side encryption into its 100G networking gear

10 hours ago May. 14, 2014 - 11:37 PM PDT

ADVA Optical Networking, based in southern Germany, has released a new 100G technology for metro network deployments generally, connecting data centers within a metropolitan area that includes built-in encryption on the network layer.

The advantage of this kind of Layer 1 encryption is that it doesnt slow down the data throughput much, but rivals such as Cisco are not yet supporting super-speedy 100Gbps data rates with such a product ADVA, with the new version of its FSP 3000 optical transport solution, is. In short, this new multiplexer may hold appeal for enterprises and even telcos that want to be able to securely handle lots of data at high speed.

ADVAs 100G Metro tech is protocol-agnostic, so it can handle Ethernet, fiber, Infiniband and so on. Its line-side encryption is based on the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and uses 256-bit keys, with over 60 key exchanges an hour. As it encrypts not only the payload but also headers and checksums - nothing unencrypted for spooks and hackers to intercept its really for point-to-point setups and youd need an ADVA box on either end of the connection.

Whats impressive is that adding this encryption to standard 100G Metro products adds under 150 nanoseconds in latency, which isnt a lot. Handily for carriers, its also possible to separate the management of the network and encryption, which should make it easier to service enterprises that want to manage their own encryption over a leased service.

According to Uli Schlegel, ADVAs director of data center business development, the competition is at least a year behind on all this. Whether or not that bears out, its certainly interesting to see vendors baking encryption into modern, capacious networks in a way that doesnt overly affect throughput. Maybe big data and security can play nice after all.

Heres a slightly trippy ADVA video on the subject:

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Aiming for secure big data, ADVA puts line-side encryption into its 100G networking gear