Spectrally and spatially flexible optical network planning and operations

Resource Allocation for Space-Division Multiplexing: Optical White Box Versus Optical Black Box Networking

“…Notice that these last two studies are not taking into account the crosstalk issue, which is critical for the deployment of weakly-coupled MCF-based SDM system. The possibility to exploit the spatial domain effectively inflicts new challenges on the optical control plane, which are discussed in [35], [40]. For instance, the control plane needs to differentiate between links with multiple fibers and multiple cores in a MCF as they exhibit different physical characteristics.…”

“…The control plane should be able to consider the new switching features and constraints for routing and spectrum allocation algorithms, particularly for the dynamic node architecture (AoD node) swift reconfiguration in response to varying network traffic needs to be performed. The SDN seems to be a convenient choice for the control of SDM networks as advocated in [8], [35], [40]. In fact, the work in [35] experimentally demonstrates the automatic bandwidth and quality of transport (QoT) provisioning, AoD node configuration, and spatial superchannel slicing over the SDM infrastructure using the SDN controllers.…”

Demonstration of an SDM Network Testbed for Joint Spatial Circuit and Packet Switching †

“…This has mainly been driven by the increase in demand for machine-to-machine communication, specifically inter-datacenter traffic [1]. The demand growth has not been followed by a corresponding growth of the capabilities of optical interfaces which are limited by the restrictions imposed by single-core fiber communications using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) [1,2]. Spatial division multiplexing (SDM) systems have recently gathered significant attention due to their potential to support the increasing bandwidth demands of optical networks [1,3].…”

“…Uncoupled core multi-core fibers (MCF) and, in particular, homogeneous MCFs are often considered to be the most flexible media for the implementation of SDM networks [5]. This yields from the fact that optical signals carried by MCFs can be easily multiplexed and demultiplexed in the optical domain [2,5]. Furthermore, the signals in different cores propagate at similar group velocities, leading to small differences between the propagation delays of different cores, referred to here as inter-core skew (ICS).…”

“…This enables the implementation of synchronous spatial super channels [3], which can be received with limited, yet non-negligible, buffering or guard time mechanisms [6]. In addition, the use of spatial optical switches may reduce the required switching resources in SDM reconfigurable optical add and drop multiplexers (ROADM) [2]. This comes at the cost of reduced granularity which may be well suited for long distance transmission networks [5].…”