New transmission systems enabling transparent network perspectives

The emergence of new devices and technologies introduces new trends and design issues for optical transport networks. The higher performance of transmission and switch systems enables the reduction of optoelectronic conversions in intermediate nodes with the introduction of transparency in the network. Simultaneously, the system of Automatic Switched Optical Networks (ASON) describes the rules for the construction of a network enabling cost reduction, above all for maintenance, and fast and automatic reconfiguration. Two axes have to evolve to make possible all these proprieties: the control plane and its relative set of protocols, to manage the network working for the network automation, and also the systems and tools enabling transparency and reconfigurability. In this article we focus on the second axis applied to an automatic transparent network. To cite this article: A. Morea et al., C. R. Physique 9 (2008).