Page 64 - Cyber Warnings

Shedding the Light on Deep Network Visibility for Cyber

Intelligence Applications

DWDM is the backbone technology for optical networks but presents a challenge to
government agencies with intercept responsibilities.

Mike Seidler, Senior Product Manager, NetQuest Corporation

Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) networks provide the capacity to carry the data of
the internet and the long distance reach to span the globe; they have forever changed the way
the world builds communication networks. Carriers all over the world are deploying Metro,
Regional and Long-haul DWDM networks connecting their OTN, Native Ethernet and legacy
SONET/SDH networks.

Traffic growth is the underlying driver for 100G+/100G/40G DWDM network transports and
today’s DWDM systems are closing in on supporting terabits of data per second over a single
optical fiber.

These optical networks represent a tremendous cyber intelligence opportunity for national
government intelligence agencies; however, intercepting and monitoring traffic carried over
DWDM networks presents numerous challenges.

These challenges can be broken down into three significant areas: Access, Discovery and Big
Data.

Access

Traditionally, government agencies would choose to avoid directly tapping the DWDM network
and instead find a more convenient and less expensive access point in the long haul system.

By avoiding the DWDM network, standard analytic tools can typically be leveraged without
having to first unravel all the wavelengths and underlying transport protocols within a typical
DWDM signal.

Avoiding the requirement for DWDM network access is becoming increasingly challenging as
the deployment of DWDM networks expands beyond backbone, subsea and long-haul
applications and the number of active wavelengths grows to the current standard of 96 per fiber.

Physical space has also provided access challenges in the past as a combination of test and
transport gear has traditionally been required to tap into an individual DWDM fiber link and
process each of the wavelengths.

64 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – April 2017 Edition
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