Time Shared Optical Network (TSON): a novel metro architecture for flexible multi-granular services

This paper presents the Time Shared Optical Network (TSON) as metro mesh network architecture for guaranteed, statistically-multiplexed services. TSON proposes a flexible and tunable time-wavelength assignment along with one-way tree-based reservation and node architecture. It delivers guaranteed sub-wavelength and multi-granular network services without wavelength conversion, time-slice interchange and optical buffering. Simulation results demonstrate high network utilization, fast service delivery, and low end-to-end delay on a contention-free sub-wavelength optical transport network. In addition, implementation complexity in terms of Layer 2 aggregation, grooming and optical switching has been evaluated

A low-energy rate-adaptive bit-interleaved passive optical network

Energy consumption of customer premises equipment (CPE) has become a serious issue in the new generations of time-division multiplexing passive optical networks, which operate at 10 Gb/s or higher. It is becoming a major factor in global network energy consumption, and it poses problems during emergencies when CPE is battery-operated. In this paper, a low-energy passive optical network (PON) that uses a novel bit-interleaving downstream protocol is proposed. The details about the network architecture, protocol, and the key enabling implementation aspects, including dynamic traffic interleaving, rate-adaptive descrambling of decimated traffic, and the design and implementation of a downsampling clock and data recovery circuit, are described. The proposed concept is shown to reduce the energy consumption for protocol processing by a factor of 30. A detailed analysis of the energy consumption in the CPE shows that the interleaving protocol reduces the total energy consumption of the CPE significantly in comparison to the standard 10 Gb/s PON CPE. Experimental results obtained from measurements on the implemented CPE prototype confirm that the CPE consumes significantly less energy than the standard 10 Gb/s PON CPE

Fronthaul evolution: From CPRI to Ethernet

It is proposed that using Ethernet in the fronthaul, between base station baseband unit (BBU) pools and remote radio heads (RRHs), can bring a number of advantages, from use of lower-cost equipment, shared use of infrastructure with fixed access networks, to obtaining statistical multiplexing and optimised performance through probe-based monitoring and software-defined networking. However, a number of challenges exist: ultra-high-bit-rate requirements from the transport of increased bandwidth radio streams for multiple antennas in future mobile networks, and low latency and jitter to meet delay requirements and the demands of joint processing. A new fronthaul functional division is proposed which can alleviate the most demanding bit-rate requirements by transport of baseband signals instead of sampled radio waveforms, and enable statistical multiplexing gains. Delay and synchronisation issues remain to be solved

Ethernet - a survey on its fields of application

During the last decades, Ethernet progressively became the most widely used local area networking (LAN) technology. Apart from LAN installations, Ethernet became also attractive for many other fields of application, ranging from industry to avionics, telecommunication, and multimedia. The expanded application of this technology is mainly due to its significant assets like reduced cost, backward-compatibility, flexibility, and expandability. However, this new trend raises some problems concerning the services of the protocol and the requirements for each application. Therefore, specific adaptations prove essential to integrate this communication technology in each field of application. Our primary objective is to show how Ethernet has been enhanced to comply with the specific requirements of several application fields, particularly in transport, embedded and multimedia contexts. The paper first describes the common Ethernet LAN technology and highlights its main features. It reviews the most important specific Ethernet versions with respect to each application field’s requirements. Finally, we compare these different fields of application and we particularly focus on the fundamental concepts and the quality of service capabilities of each proposal

Architecture, design, and modeling of the OPSnet asynchronous optical packet switching node

An all-optical packet-switched network supporting multiple services represents a long-term goal for network operators and service providers alike. The EPSRC-funded OPSnet project partnership addresses this issue from device through to network architecture perspectives with the key objective of the design, development, and demonstration of a fully operational asynchronous optical packet switch (OPS) suitable for 100 Gb/s dense-wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) operation. The OPS is built around a novel buffer and control architecture that has been shown to be highly flexible and to offer the promise of fair and consistent packet delivery at high load conditions with full support for quality of service (QoS) based on differentiated services over generalized multiprotocol label switching

Experimenting the integration of green optical access and metro networks based on SDN

This paper outlines the issues in providing a seamless integration between energy-efficient optical access networks and metro networks that preserves the overall latency balance. A solution based on SDN is proposed and detailed. The proposed solution allows to trade the increased delay in the access section, due the utilization of energy efficient schemes, with a reduced delay in the metro section. Experiments in a geographically distributed testbed evaluate the different delay contributions.This work was carried out with the support of the Fed4FIRE project (“Federation for FIRE”), an integrated project funded by the European Commission through the 7th ICT Framework Programme (318389).European Community's Seventh Framework Progra