WASHINGTON, March 1—As IP traffic continues to increase and the router interface rate extends beyond 100 gigabits-per-second (Gb/s), future optical networks—ones that would achieve unprecedented speeds of 1 terabit-per-second (Tb/s)—will be required to support the rapid growth of data services with different capacities and patterns on the same optical platform.
To address this issue, researchers at NTT Network Innovation Laboratories in Japan created and demonstrated a spectrally efficient, scalable elastic optical transport network architecture. The team will report on their findings at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) taking place next week in Los Angeles.
Conventional optical networks allocate fixed bandwidth to every optical path—regardless of the actual traffic volume and path length on the basis of the "worst-case design policy."
In stark contrast, the NTT researchers' spectrum-sliced elastic optical path network, known as "SLICE," is flexible and relies on adaptive spectrum allocation to an optical path based on the traffic volume and path length. It essentially enables allocation of only the necessary minimum bandwidth corresponding to individual requests—providing significant savings of network resources.
The bit rate per distance adaptive feature leads to significant spectral savings and increased network capacity. Elastic optical path networks make it possible to offload IP traffic to an elastic optical layer by using multi-flow optical transponders combined with elastic optical networking technology.
This reduces the number of router interfaces, while keeping router-to-wavelength cross-connect interconnections simple.
The technologies and functionality of elastic optical path networks will become a viable way to achieve highly efficient, cost-effective IP optical networks, according to the NTT researchers.
NTT's Hidehiko Takara will present the paper, "Spectrally Efficient Elastic Optical Path Networks Toward 1 Tbps Era," Thursday, March 8 at 1:30 p.m. in the Los Angeles Convention Center.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Credentialed press and analysts can obtain a complimentary press badge to attend OFC/NFOEC. The press/analyst registration form is available on the OFC/NFOEC website (http://www.ofcnfoec.org).
About OFC/NFOEC
For more than 35 years, the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/ National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) has been the premier destination for converging breakthrough research and innovation in telecommunications, optical networking and, recently, datacom and computing. Uniting service providers, systems companies, enterprise customers, IT businesses and component manufacturers, along with researchers, engineers and development teams, OFC/NFOEC combines dynamic business programming, an exposition of more than 500 companies and cutting-edge peer-reviewed research into one event that showcases the trends and pulse of the entire optical communications industry.
OFC/NFOEC is managed by the Optical Society (OSA) and co-sponsored by OSA, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Communications Society (IEEE/ComSoc) and the IEEE Photonics Society. Acting as a non-financial technical co-sponsor is Telcordia Technologies, Inc. Visit http://www.ofcnfoec.org.