New paradigms in optical communications and networks

Software defined networking (SDN) is a broad term used to describe dynamic control of discrete computing, storage, switching, routing and/or transport devices to create an optimized network configuration for a given application or amount of traffic. SDN allows the network to automatically react to ever changing demands using a shared pool of resources, rather than relying on static designs to improve scalability and resiliency, while reducing cost. This separation of the control plane from the data plane provides the means to orchestrate a wide variety of network resources across multiple layers and multiple domains to achieve optimal utilization. This Feature Topic focuses on how SDN is being applied to the optical transport layer both within and between data centers, thus extending the work that until now has only been discussed at the upper network layers. Some of its enabling key technologies are also discussed.