We demonstrate and compare distributed and centralized impairment-aware control plane schemes for transparent optical networks with dynamic traffic. Experimental results show that distributed scheme yields one fifth of setup time required by previously reported alternatives.

The issues and challenges associated with network planning and engineering of a dynamically reconfigurable all-optical network will be discussed. Possible solutions will be outlined and the effectiveness of some proposed solutions will be demonstrated. Extended AbstractProviding ultra high-speed end-to-end connectivity in core optical networks while satisfying the requirements for quality of service and network resiliency is a topic of intense research. In ultra-long-haul all-optical networks, the analog nature of the signal transmission through the network links and nodes introduces a number of issues (e.g. signal quality degradation due to impairment accumulation, difficulty in failure localization) that the system vendors and network operators have to somehow overcome or simply deal with them. In the past few years, it has been proposed that physical layer impairments or/and the overall optical signal performance should be monitored and considered in the network planning and operation processes. To support this network functionality evolution fast physical layer modeling techniques were developed, new optical performance and impairment monitoring schemes were proposed, novel impairment aware routing and wavelength assignment algorithms were introduced, failure localization algorithms for all-optical networks were discussed and associated control plane extensions were presented. These developments may be now integrated into the next generation optical networks that will accommodate dynamic traffic characteristics, rapid reconfigurability of the optical layer, and varying physical impairment/component characteristics. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the related literature on the topic of impairment constraint optical networking and we will describe how the existing network planning and operation procedures could be extended to support a dynamically reconfigurable all-optical network environment.