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This work provides a techno-economic evaluation of optical disaggregation architectures in the context of metropolitan area networks. The study compares two optical disaggregation options (partial vs. total) against the legacy benchmark where optical equipment is subject to vendor lock-in, as it is deployed in most networks today. We show that emerging open source software projects within the software-defined networking ecosystem can potentially yield significant cost savings for medium- and large-size network operators, while they can introduce extra flexibility and agility to network operations and service deployments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital pre-compensation techniques are among the enablers for cost-efficient high-capacity transponders. In this paper we describe various methods to mitigate the impairments introduced by state-of-the-art components within modern optical transceivers. Numerical and experimental results validate their performance and benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the work on next generation transponders for optical networks carried out within the last few years. A general architecture supporting super-channels (i.e., optical connections composed of several adjacent subcarriers) and sliceability (i.e., subcarriers grouped in a number of independent super-channels with different destinations) is presented. Several transponder implementations supporting different transmission techniques are considered, highlighting advantages, economics, and complexity. Discussions include electronics, optical components, integration, and programmability. Application use cases are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As traffic demands become more uncertain and newer services continuously arise, novel network elements are needed to provide more flexibility, scalability, resilience and adaptability to today's optical networks. Considering these requirements, within the European project IDEALIST the investigation of elastic optical networks is undertaken with special focus on next generation optical node architectures. As an evolution of existent ROADMs and OXCs, these optical nodes will establish a new paradigm in which the network requirements will be efficiently addressed considering various emerging dimensions. In this article, we describe the drivers, architectures, and technologies that will enable these novel optical nodes. In addition, multivendor traffic interoperability, optical defragmentation, and node cascadability are also described as considerations in the node design. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this work we detail the strategies adopted in the European research project IDEALIST to overcome the predicted data plane capacity crunch in optical networks. In order for core and metropolitan telecommunication systems to be able to catch up with Internet traffic, which keeps growing exponentially, we exploit the elastic optical networks paradigm for its astounding characteristics: flexible bandwidth allocation and reach tailoring through adaptive line rate, modulation formats, and spectral efficiency. We emphasize the novelties stemming from the flex-grid concept and report on the corresponding proposed target network scenarios. Fundamental building blocks, like the bandwidth-variable transponder and complementary node architectures ushering those systems, are detailed focusing on physical layer, monitoring aspects, and node architecture design. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]