Deploying agile photonic networks over reconfigurable optical networks

The advantages and issues in deploying a fast photonic network on top of a reconfigurable WDM network are discussed. The agile photonic network is deployed as another user of the reconfigurable optical WDM network (RON), with the reconfigurable optical switches setting up the optical circuits that define the virtual topology for the agile network. The services provided by the agile network are then carried over the wavelengths that are assigned to it by the global control plane of the RON. Such deployment would allow the agile network to provide the fast optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) scheduling techniques warranted for fast-changing, low-capacity traffic flows typical of metropolitan and access networks; while sustained, high-capacity flows would remain in whole lightpaths provided at the RON level to other users. Connectivity options are described for edge and core nodes, as well as the functionality requirements of the global control plane that would manage such a deployment.