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SERIES EDITORIAL
OPTICAL TRANSPORT AND ACCESS NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES
Osman S. Gebizlioglu
A
Hideo Kuwahara
s we move further into the second decade of the 21st century, the transformation of the global telecommunications industry continues via advancements in all communications technologies from optical transport to access networks. We devoted a special issue in February 2011, a special OFCNFOEC ’11 supplement, to advances in passive optical network (PON) technologies, and we selected PONs as our theme again in the November OCS (Optical Communications Series) issue in recognition of the continuing worldwide focus on PON technologies. Although we have been reading reports regarding the global slowdown in deployments and resulting drop in the shipment of telecommunications network equipment, we believe that the global telecommunications markets will continue to show growth in 2012. Two noteworthy industry events of the last quarter of 2011 were the announcement of the eight gigabit PON optical network unit (GPON ONU) products certified by the Broadband Forum’s BBF.247 Certification Program, and advances in the standards development activities during the International Telecommunication Union — Telecommunication Sector (ITU-T) Study Group 15 (SG15) Plenary Meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland, during the weeks of 5 and 12 December. The BBF.247 Certification Program was also highlighted at two major industry events: Broadband World Forum Europe held in Paris, France, 27–29 September, 2011; and ITU Telecom World held in Geneva, Switzerland, 24–27, October 2011. In this issue, we have selected four contributions that address the performance of label switched path dynamic provisioning in generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) networks: cognitive optical networks — key drivers, enabling techniques, and adaptive bandwidth services; a novel infrastructure network design approach to support resilience in fiber to the x (FTTx) deployments; and energy-efficient next-generation optical access networks. In the first contribution, “Performance of Label Switched Path Dynamic Provisioning in GMPLS Networks,” Weiqiang Sun, Zijie Xing, Kai Kang, Yaohui Jin,
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Vijay Jain
John Spencer
Wei Guo, Weisheng Hu, Guoying Zhang, and Rajiv Papneja introduce the ongoing activities in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) on defining standardized metrics and measurement methodologies for GMPLS/MPLS with traffic engineering (MPLS-TE) performance. Control channels in GMPLS/MPLS-TE networks use packet-based forwarding, and the processing of control messages may be subject to a number of factors. Thus, the provisioning delay of a label switched path (LSP) could be highly random. In order to bridge the gap between the variable performance and demanding application needs, it is imperative to measure and characterize the LSP provisioning performance by testing a number of GMPLS networks. The results are presented to compare the performance of current state-of-the-art GMPLS implementations. This article aims to emphasize the emerging need for characterizing the provisioning performance of GMPLS networks. In the second contribution, entitled “Cognitive Optical Networks: Key Drivers, Enabling Techniques, and Adaptive Bandwidth Services,” Wei Wei, Chonggang Wang, and Jianjun Yu address a new concept of cognitive optical networks (CONs) utilizing intelligent software (e.g., digital signal processing in the optical transport plane and GMPLS in the optical control plane) as well as flexible optics (e.g., colorless, directionless, contentionless, gridless reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexing [ROADM], and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing [OFDM]). The software-defined CON architecture with advanced capabilities such as quality of transmission awareness and client service awareness is capable of provisioning adaptive bandwidth services at wavelength and subwavelength levels, making future optical networks more intelligent and reconfigurable. This contribution suggests that software will play significantly more important roles, not only in the control and management planes, but also in the optical transport plane, to support efficient delivery of packet and circuit services simultaneously in optical networks of the future. In the third contribution, “Novel Infrastructure Network Design Approach to Support Resilience in FTTx
IEEE Communications Magazine • January 2012
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SERIES EDITORIAL Deployments,” Nick Medlen, Tim Gilfedder, and Albert Rafel propose how, at an incremental cost to typical FTTx infrastructure deployments, a new duct network architecture can be implemented, enabling the deployment of resilient access networks, which eliminates the artificial demarcations of central office boundaries and removes the distinction between the backhaul/metro and access domains. If the current predictions of consumer usage of high-bandwidth “on-net” services and behavioral changes are realized, the network that delivers these services must be significantly more reliable and future-proof than currently achievable to meet customers’ expectations and customer satisfaction targets. Optical fiber plant infrastructure constitutes the biggest single cost item in global FTTx deployments and represents a major barrier for rolling out resilient optical fiber access network configurations. Thus, this contribution describes how the proposed infrastructure architecture would be implemented in practice and presents preliminary results that demonstrate the low risk for the network operator to realize significant deployment speed and cost benefits with the proposed approach. In the fourth contribution, “Energy-Efficient NextGeneration Optical Access Networks,” Björn Skubic, Einar In de Betou, Tolga Ayhan, and Stefan Dahlfort address the energy consumption of different next-generation optical access solutions beyond 10-gigabit timedivision multiplexing (TDM) PONs in a systematic approach. Energy efficiency has become an increasingly important aspect of network design, due to both the increasing operational costs related to energy consumption and the increasing awareness of environmental concerns such as global warming and climate change. It is expected that next-generation optical access should be able to provide sustainable data rates up to 1 Gb/s per subscriber with a passive subscriber distribution of at least 1:64. Promising system candidates that meet these criteria are compared and analyzed in terms of energy consumption. Candidate PON solutions are also compared to architectures based on point-to-point optical fiber access networks. In this contribution, the analysis presented is based on estimates of power consumption for key components in next-generation systems. Among the considered candidates, solutions that involve wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM)-PON based on the reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA), stacked 10G PON, and point-to-point fiber offer the lowest power consumption per line. We look forward to another year of continuing advances in optical communications technologies and markets in 2012 and wish all of our readers a New Year of Health and Happiness. We also take this opportunity to express our appreciation to all authors for their contributions to the OCS in 2011 and look forward to the continuing support of IEEE Communications Society members in 2012.
BIOGRAPHIES O SMAN S. G EBIZLIOGLU [SM] (
[email protected]) joined Huawei Technologies USA as a principal consultant for optical distribution network (ODN) technology research in February 2011. From 1987,
IEEE Communications Magazine • January 2012
when he joined Bellcore, until his departure from Telcordia Technologies at the end of January 2011, he was involved with the development of performance and reliability assurance requirements for optical communications components. In addition to his work to support the implementation of optical communications technologies in major service provider networks, he has been involved in failure analysis and reliability assurance efforts on aerospace and defense communications networks. He holds B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in chemical engineering (Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey) and a Ph.D in chemical engineering and polymer materials science and engineering (Princeton University, New Jersey). Before joining Bellcore in 1987, he held Monsanto and ExxonMobil postdoctoral fellowships and research scientist appointments in mechanical engineering (Mechanics of Materials Division), chemical engineering (Microstructural Engineering Division), and the Center for Materials Science & Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. He has been an active member of the American Chemical Society, Materials Research Society, SPIE — International Society for Optical Engineering, Optical Society of America, IEEE Photonics Society, and IEEE Communications Society. He holds five U.S. patents and chaired the Telecommunications Industry Association TR-42.13 Subcommittee on Passive Optical Devices and Fiber Optic Metrology. He serves as co-Series Editor of the IEEE Communications Magazine Optical Communications Series. H IDEO K UWAHARA [F] (
[email protected]) joined Fujitsu in 1974, and has been engaged for more than 30 years in R&D of optical communications technologies, including high-speed TDM systems, coherent optical transmission systems, EDFA, terrestrial and submarine WDM systems, and related optical components. His current responsibility is to lead photonics technology as a Fellow of Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. in Japan. He stayed in the United States from 2000 to 2003 as a senior vice president at Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc., and Fujitsu Laboratories of America, Richardson, Texas. He belongs to LEOS and ComSoc. He is a co-Editor of IEEE Communications Magazine’s Optical Communications Series. He is currently a member of the International Advisory Committee of the European Conference on Optical Communications, and chairs the Steering Committee of CLEO Pacific Rim. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communications Engineers (IEICE) of Japan. He has co-chaired several conferences, including Optoelectronics and Communications Conference (OECC) 2007. He received an Achievement Award from IEICE of Japan in 1998 for the experimental realization of optical terabit transmission. He received the Sakurai Memorial Award from the Optoelectronic Industry and Technology Development Association of Japan in 1990 for research on coherent optical communication. VIJAY JAIN [SM] (
[email protected]) serves as chief technology officer in Sterlite Network Ltd. based in Mumbai, India. He held the position of general manager in Bharti Airtel prior to joining Sterlite. He was Fiber Optic Components Independent Test Laboratories program manager at Verizon to support Verizon’s FTTP initiative before his move to Bharti Airtel. He has over 15 years of experience in the telecom industry, and has worked in Canada, the United States, and India. He held management positions in telecom equipment manufacturers and product test laboratories prior to joining Verizon. During the last 15 years, he has worked in engineering, R&D planning, and strategic business development roles. His achievements include designing and testing GSM/CDMA-based wireless antenna, DSPbased VLSI chips, NMS for optical and wireless technologies, fiber optic components, and high-speed transport systems. He holds Master’s degrees, one in telecom engineering specializing in wireless technology from the Indian Institute of Technology and the other in DSP technology from Concordia University in Canada. JOHN SPENCER [SM] (
[email protected]) is a telecom industry veteran with over 37 years’ experience. He worked 29 years with BellSouth, 14 of those years as a member of technical staff in the Science & Technology department. During that time he was involved in the introduction of SONET and erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs), and had a team leader role for the introduction of DWDM technology in the BellSouth network. He worked four years as regional director of product marketing engineering for Mahi Networks, Petaluma, California. He is currently business and technology strategist for Optelian Access Networks where he manages industry and customer direction to Optelian’s product line as well as a key role in Optelian’s AT&T account management. He was Conference Co-Chairman for NFOEC in 1991 and 1998. He has served on the NFOEC Technical Program Committee for 10 years. He served as Secretary and Chairman of ANSI accredited committee T1X1, Digital Hierarchy and Synchronization, which developed the standards for SONET. He is a graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology (B.E.E.) and is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in the State of Alabama. He currently serves on the NFOEC/OFC Technical Program Committee.
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