Software-defined elastic optical networks

Abstract

Recent advances in flexible and programmable device technologies, such as flexible-spectrum variable-rate transceivers and reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADMs), coupled with emergence of software-defined network paradigms, such as OpenFlow, have enabled the possibility of software-defined elastic optical networks that can be flexibly and dynamically provisioned and reconfigured.The ability to flexibly manage and provision resources allows service providers to support a wide range of emerging dynamic highbandwidth applications, including data center networking, cloud computing, and optical network virtualization.In developing mechanisms for supporting the rapid and flexible provisioning of resources in elastic optical networks, several key challenges must be considered.These challenges may include issues related to the cost-effective design of data and control plane architectures, the intelligent provisioning and reconfiguration of resources to support dynamic and heterogeneous applications, the design of mechanisms to provide survivability against equipment failures and major disasters, and the design of architectures and protocols for reducing energy consumption in elastic optical networks.