Efficient elastic optical path network for transmission beyond 100G

Optical networks of tomorrow are expected to support the rapid growth of data services such as the broadband access, including broadband mobile access, storage area networks with long connection times and large transfer capacities, as well as data center interconnections, requiring ultra-high capacity links. Those services with differing capacities and patterns will converge in the same optical platform. The standardization bodies have reached an agreement on the format of the optical 100 Gb/s transmission. However, the large variety of services is likely to generate traffics both below 100 Gb/s as well as exceeding that maximum port speed. In order to address this demand efficiently it is necessary to consider more flexible methods of traffic allocation. One solution may be provided by a spectrum-sliced elastic optical path network (SLICE). The aim of SLICE is to efficiently allocate client traffic while performing the necessary networking functionality directly in the optical domain. Technologies and concepts employed in SLICE enable efficient utilization of network resources by providing optical paths with bandwidths ranging from 40 Gb/s to over 400 Gb/s. Basing on the concept of elastic optical path, we discuss the following concepts: path bandwidth flexibly following client traffic with capacity of 40 to 400Gb/s, grooming and aggregation performed optically: seamless aggregation of optical paths exceeding the maximum speed of a single port to form a super-wavelength optical path; sharing of resources through reduction of the overall number of required resources; distance adaptation through reduction of consumed resources by transmission margin optimization.