Aviz ONES details DOM-based optics visibility for SONiC networks
The blog outlines how optical transceivers and link optics work in fiber networks, then describes how Aviz ONES collects and normalizes optics telemetry for inventory visibility and fault triage in SONiC and other network operating systems.
Research Overview
The post explains optical transceivers as hot-swappable modules that convert electrical signals to optical signals for transmission and convert optical signals back to electrical signals for reception over fiber.
It also frames link optics monitoring as an operational need for managing many transceivers across a fabric, covering optics telemetry sources and the types of device metrics used for observability.
Key Findings
The blog states that optical transceivers support multiple form factors tied to physical size and to supported speeds and protocols, with compatibility driven by the Multisource Agreement approach.
It adds that fiber and copper are presented as different transmission media, with fiber characterized in the post as using light for data transmission and offering attributes such as higher bandwidth and lower attenuation, while copper uses electrical signals.
Technical Breakdown
The post provides an engineering definition of optical transceivers, noting they are designed to work with different form factors (for example SFP, QSFP variants, and OSFP) and different data rates, and that they can be used in networks with fiber, copper, or hybrid cabling.
It describes an optics monitoring workflow based on Digital Optical Monitoring telemetry, listing example operating parameters that include Tx power, Rx power, temperature, supply voltage, and laser bias current.
Product Update
Aviz ONES is described as a network management and support application intended to consume telemetry from switches running SONiC and other NOS platforms including NVIDIA Cumulus Linux, Arista EOS, and Cisco NX-OS.
The blog says ONES normalizes telemetry across platforms to provide a unified view, then uses that normalized data to support optics inventory reporting (including metrics such as speed, type, and breakout details) and health reporting tied to DOM parameters.
Operational Impact
The blog connects optics telemetry monitoring to link availability, stating that link failures are a primary source of customer-impacting issues in most cases, and that monitoring helps identify link issues from transient or permanent failures.
It also states that the optics telemetry collected by ONES can be used to qualify optics before purchase decisions, and that ONES supports drilled-down identification of faulty transceivers for root cause analysis.
Overall, the blog summarizes how optical transceivers and fanout or breakout cabling fit into fiber link optics, and pairs that with a description of how Aviz ONES collects, normalizes, and presents DOM-based optics inventory and health telemetry for triage and planning in multi-vendor SONiC and NOS environments. This “Blog Signals brief” is a fact-based summary of the vendor blog.