Passive filterless core networks based on advanced modulation and electrical compensation technologies

The development in the last years of optical wavelength selective switching (WSS) and optical cross-connect (OXC) technologies and advances in the optimization methods for complex optical multi-branch optical systems have rendered possible the realization of long haul transparent optical networks. National scale all-optical networks are currently being deployed. In current agile wide area network (WAN) architectures, the agility is delivered at the network nodes. This agility is engendering additional system and network capital costs. In several cases, the additional capital costs are compensated by the operational benefits of the delivered agility.