Jelena Pesic

ORCHESTRA - Optical performance monitoring enabling flexible networking

An optical network, like any system, has to be observable before it can become subject to optimization, and this is the main capability that ORCHESTRA project introduces. ORCHESTRAs high observability will rely on information provided by the coherent transceivers that can be extended, almost for free, to operate as software defined optical performance monitors (soft-OPM). Novel digital signal processing (DSP) OPM algorithms will be developed and combined with a novel hierarchical monitoring plane, cross-layer optimization algorithms and active-control functionalities. ORCHESTRA vision is to close the control loop, enabling true network dynamicity and unprecedented network capacity efficiency.

Faster return of investment in WDM networks when elastic transponders dynamically fit ageing of link margins

We illustrate the cost reduction during 10-year life of a core WDM network enabled by elastic transponders when accounting directly for end-of-life OSNR detection margins, compared to margins progressively growing with network ageing.

Adapting the EPON MAC protocol to a metropolitan burst switching network

This paper compares the respective efficiencies of the control and the management planes in performing resource allocation for TWIN (Time-domain Wavelength Interleaved Networking) optical networks used to aggregate and distribute traffic within a metropolitan area. While the Management Plane driven MAC (MP-MAC) protocol is based on an quasi-static configuration derived from optimization model, the Control Plane driven MAC (CP-MAC) protocol is based on adapting Passive Optical Network (PON) upstream traffic control, originally designed to access network, to the metropolitan network. The performance levels delivered by both approaches are compared by simulating a TWIN network applied to a Multi-hEad sub-wavElength swiTching (MEET) architecture that ensures an all optical aggregation between the regional metropolitan and the core networks. The simulation assesses the QoS delivered to three different classes of service, for a packet level traffic trace obtained from an operational network.

Cost benchmarking when deploying elastic transponders accounting for margins ageing versus when deploying only 100 Gb/s interfaces

We compare the cost efficiency of optical networks based on elastic transponders when accounting for link margins due to network ageing and on fixed 100 Gb/s PDM-QPSK interfaces technologies. Germany50 and Italian photonic backbone networks are used for providing results during a 10-year period given different throughputs, traffic growth rates and the cost erosions of elastic optical transponders. We also investigate the distribution of the ageing margins and modulation schemes that might be changed during the life of the network, before its end-of-life (EoL).

Operating a network close to the “zero margin” regime thanks to elastic devices

Despite of recent progress in research on the subject of modernisation and automation of networks, most legacy optical networks still operate statically: when a connection has been set-up it is rarely reconfigured. Exception occurs in a case of a node/link failure: in that case reconfigurations concern only the traffic with a specific class of service (CoS) where a given resiliency has to be ensured. When network reconfigurations are needed, the newly set up connection has to be promptly operational, independently of the actual network state.