Roberto Morro

The IP/MPLS over ASON/GMPLS test bed of the IST project LION

A test-bed of a multi-vendor IP/MPLS over ASON/GMPLS network has been realized integrating IP Gigabit routers and optical equipment in a managed multi-domain environment to investigate the realization of soft-permanent optical connections and multi-layer resilience strategies

Experimental Demonstration of Multivendor and Multidomain EON With Data and Control Interoperability Over a Pan-European Test Bed

The operation of multidomain and multivendor EONs can be achieved by interoperable sliceable bandwidth variable transponders (S-BVTs), a GMPLS/BGP-LS-based control plane, and a planning tool. The control plane is extended to include the control of S-BVTs and elastic cross connects, which combine a large port-count fiber-switch (optical backplane) and bandwidth-variable wavelength-selective switches, enabling the end-to-end provisioning and recovery of network services. A multipartner testbed is built to demonstrate and validate the proposed end-to-end architecture. Interoperability among S-BVTs is experimentally tested between different implementations. In this case, transponders are configured using the proposed control plane. The achieved performance with hard-decision and soft-decision FECs using only the information distributed by the control plane is measured against the performance of the single-vendor implementation, where proprietary information is used, demonstrating error-free transmission up to 300 km.

Multipartner demonstration of BGP-LS-enabled multidomain EON control and instantiation with H-PCE [Invited]

The control of multidomain elastic optical networks (EONs) is possible by combining Hierarchical Path Computation Element (H-PCE)-based computation, Border Gateway Protocol with Extensions for Traffic Engineering Link State Information (BGP-LS) topology discovery, remote instantiation via Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP), and signaling via Resource Reservation Protocol with Extensions for Traffic Engineering (RSVP-TE). Two evolutionary architectures are considered, one based on stateless H-PCE, PCEP instantiation, and end-to-end RSVP-TE signaling (SL-E2E), and a second one based on stateful active H-PCE with perdomain instantiation and stitching. This paper presents the first multiplatform demonstration that fully validates both control architectures achieving multiprotocol interoperability. SL-E2E leads to slightly faster provisioning but needs to keep the state of the stitching of the end-to-end label-switched paths in the parent PCE.

IDEALIST control plane architecture for multi-domain flexi-grid optical networks

The IDEALIST (Industry-Driven Elastic and Adaptive Lambda Infrastructure for Service and Transport Networks) project has designed and implemented a Generalized Multi Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) control plane for flexi-grid optical Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) networks, providing significant input for IETF standardization. The control plane supports delegating the path computation function to dedicated Path Computation Elements (PCE), notably when justified by the limitations of the optical technology. This paper objectives are two-fold: to provide an overview of the major issues and challenges of the extension of such GMPLS/PCE control plane for multi-domain networks and to summarize the main architectural, functional and protocol choices. The architecture is based on the concept of domain topology abstraction and on the use of a stateful hierarchical PCE (H-PCE). The parent PCE coordinates the selection of domains and the multidomain provisioning using an abstracted view, and delegates the actual computation and actual intra-domain provisioning to the corresponding children PCEs. The parent abstracted view is constructed using the BGP-LS protocol (Border Gateway Protocol with Link State extensions) and end to end connectivity is obtained by concatenating Label Switched Paths (LSPs) segments, which are set up independently by the underlying GMPLS control plane at each domain.

First demonstration of multi-vendor and multi-domain EON with S-BVT and control interoperability over Pan-European testbed

The operation of multi-domain and multi-vendor EONs can be achieved by interoperable Sliceable Bandwidth Variable Transponders, a GMPLS/BGP-LS-based control plane and a planning tool. This paper reports the first full demonstration and validation this end-to-end architecture.

Adaptive network manager: Coordinating operations in flex-grid networks

Transport networks provide reliable delivery of data between two end points. Todays most advanced transport networks are based on Wavelength Switching Optical Networks (WSON) and offer connections of 10Gbps up to 100Gbps. However, a significant disadvantage of WSON is the rigid bandwidth granularity because only single, large chunks of bandwidth can be assigned matching the available fixed wavelengths resulting in considerable waste of network resources. Elastic Optical Networks (EON) provides spectrum-efficient and scalable transport by introducing flexible granular grooming in the optical frequency domain. EON provides arbitrary contiguous concatenation of optical spectrum that allows creation of custom-sized bandwidth. The allocation is performed according to the traffic volume or user request in a highly spectrum-efficient and scalable manner. The Adaptive Network Manager (ANM) concept appears as a necessity for operators to dynamically configure their infrastructure based on user requirements and network conditions. This work introduces the ANM and defines ANM use cases, and its requirements, and proposes an architecture for ANM that is aligned with solutions being developed by the industry.

A control plane architecture for multi-domain elastic optical networks: the view of the IDEALIST project

A key objective of the IDEALIST project included the design and implementation of a GMPLS and PCE-based control plane for multi-vendor and multi-domain flexi-grid EON, leveraging the project advances in optical switching and transmission technology, an enabling interoperable deployment. A control plane, relying on a set of entities, interfaces, and protocols, provides the automation of the provisioning, recovery, and monitoring of end-to-end optical connections. This article provides an overview of the implemented architecture. We present the macroscopic system along with the core functional blocks, control procedures, message flows, and protocol extensions. The implemented end-toend architecture adopted active stateful hierarchical PCE, under the control and orchestration of an adaptive network manager, interacting with a parent PCE, which first coordinates the selection of domains and the end-to-end provisioning using an abstracted view of the topology, and second, delegates the actual computation and intra-domain provisioning to the corresponding children PCEs. End-to-end connectivity is obtained by either a single LSP, or by the concatenation of multiple LSP segments, which are set up independently by the underlying GMPLS control plane at each domain. The architecture and protocol extensions have been implemented by several partners, assessing interoperability in a multi-partner testbed and adoption by the relevant Internet SDO (standards development organization).

Demonstration of SDN-based orchestration for multi-domain Segment Routing networks

This work demonstrates a hierarchical control plane architecture for Software Defined Networking (SDN)-based Segment Routing (SR) in multi-domain networks. An orchestrator application, on top of multiple open source SDN controllers, creates a hierarchical control plane architecture using northbound RESTFul APIs of controllers. The orchestrator has control, visibility and traffic engineering capabilities to manage multi-domain SR service creation. Standard southbound interfaces with proper SR extensions are exploited to manage SR tunnels in the MPLS data plane.

Multilayer resilience tests in an IP over optical switched test-bed in IST project LION

This paper presents experimental results of a multilayer recovery test-bed involving the combination of optical restoration and MPLS Fast Reroute recovery techniques. This experiment has been conducted in the context of the European IST-project LION.

Experimental evaluation of a packaged SOI hybrid all-optical wavelength converter in a meshed network test-bed

We demonstrate data transmission and switching using a packaged and pigtailed all-optical wavelength converter. The module employs a hybrid integrated SOA and two cascaded delay-interferometers on a 4μm SOI. We present wavelength routing with power penalties less than 5dB.