Orange and Nokia migrated Orange’s long-distance networks in Europe and Asia to a photonic control plane, which allows the operator to manage the network through distributed software intelligence.

The migration involved distributing intelligence on different networking equipment on Orange’s French, European, and Asian networks, which span more than 18,000 kilometers and 330 nodes. These networks are comprised of Nokia 1830 photonic service switches, which support wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and packet-optical transport from access to core. The switches can transport up to 20 Tb/s on long-distance links, according to Orange.

Switching the networks to software-managed operations allows the operator to deploy on-demand activation services and automatic recovery control via artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies in the event of an outage.

Orange says using virtualization and automation technologies will improve its network performance by helping it respond to customers’ growing bandwidth requirements and provide it with more flexible on-demand transmission network solutions.

“This progress is a major step in the development of our transmission network, towards quicker and more flexible production of transmission links, automation, and the creation of new added-value services for our customers,” Jean-Luc Vuillemin, executive vice president of Orange’s international networks infrastructures and services, said in a statement. “Orange continues to invest in ultra-high-speed infrastructure development to support the development of new uses, such as multimedia content, social networks or the cloud, and to ensure the quality of transmissions whilst controlling costs.”

Sam Bucci, senior vice president and general manager of internet protocol transport networking at Nokia, said the equipment maker will “continue to work towards greater network automation, which will soon allow Orange customers to access services on demand via a dedicated and secure web portal.”