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Optical mesh network
An optical mesh network is a type of optical telecommunications network employing wired fiber-optic communication or wireless free-space optical communication in a mesh network architecture.
Most optical mesh networks use fiber-optic communication and are operated by internet service providers in metropolitan and regional but also national and international scenarios. They are faster and less error prone than other network architectures and support backup and recovery plans for established networks in case of any disaster, damage or failure. Currently planned satellite constellations aim to establish optical mesh networks in space by using wireless laser communication.
Transport networks, the underlying optical fiber-based layer of telecommunications networks, evolved from digital cross-connect system (DCS)-based mesh architectures in the 1980s, to SONET/SDH (Synchronous Optical Networking/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) ring architectures in the 1990s. In DCS-based mesh architectures, telecommunications carriers deployed restoration systems for DS3 circuits such as AT&T FASTAR (FAST Automatic Restoration) and MCI Real Time Restoration (RTR), restoring circuits in minutes after a network failure. In SONET/SDH rings, carriers implemented ring protection such as SONET Unidirectional Path Switched Ring (UPSR) (also called Sub-Network Connection Protection (SCNP) in SDH networks) or SONET Bidirectional Line Switched Ring (BLSR) (also called Multiplex Section - Shared Protection Ring (MS-SPRing) in SDH networks), protecting against and recovering from a network failure in 50 ms or less, a significant improvement over the recovery time supported in DCS-based mesh restoration, and a key driver for the deployment of SONET/SDH ring-based protection.
There have been attempts at improving and/or evolving traditional ring architectures to overcome some of its limitations, with trans-oceanic ring architecture (defined in ITU-T Rec. G.841), "P-cycles" protection, next-generation SONET/SDH equipment that can handle multiple rings, or has the ability to not close the working or protection ring side, or to share protection capacity among rings (e.g., with Virtual Line Switched Ring (VLSR)).
Technological advancements in optical transport switches in the first decade of the 21st century, along with continuous deployment of dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) systems, have led telecommunications service providers to replace their SONET ring architectures by mesh-based architectures for new traffic. The new optical mesh networks support the same fast recovery previously available in ring networks while achieving better capacity efficiency and resulting in lower capital cost. Such fast recovery (in the tens to hundreds of milliseconds) in case of failures (e.g., network link or node failure) is achieved through the intelligence embedded in these new optical transport equipment, which allows recovery to be automatic and handled within the network itself as part of the network control plane, without relying on an external network management system.
Optical mesh networks refer to transport networks that are built directly off the mesh-like fiber infrastructure deployed in metropolitan, regional, national, or international (e.g., trans-oceanic) areas by deploying optical transport equipment that is capable of switching traffic (at the wavelength or sub-wavelength level) from an incoming fiber to an outgoing fiber. In addition to switching wavelengths, the equipment is typically also able to multiplex lower speed traffic into wavelengths for transport, and to groom traffic (as long as the equipment is so-called opaque - see subsection on transparency). Finally, these equipment also provide for the recovery of traffic in case of a network failure. As most of the transport networks evolve toward mesh topologies utilizing intelligent network elements (optical cross-connects or optical switches ) for provisioning and recovery of services, new approaches have been developed for the design, deployment, operations and management of mesh optical networks.
Optical switches built by companies such as Sycamore and Ciena (with STS-1 granularity of switching) and Tellium (with STS-48 granularity of switching) have been deployed in operational mesh networks. Calien has built all-optical switches based on 3D MEMS technology.
Optical mesh networks today not only provide trunking capacity to higher-layer networks, such as inter-router or inter-switch connectivity in an IP, MPLS, or Ethernet-centric packet infrastructure, but also support efficient routing and fast failure recovery of high-bandwidth point-to-point Ethernet and SONET/SDH services.
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Optical mesh network AI simulator
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Optical mesh network
An optical mesh network is a type of optical telecommunications network employing wired fiber-optic communication or wireless free-space optical communication in a mesh network architecture.
Most optical mesh networks use fiber-optic communication and are operated by internet service providers in metropolitan and regional but also national and international scenarios. They are faster and less error prone than other network architectures and support backup and recovery plans for established networks in case of any disaster, damage or failure. Currently planned satellite constellations aim to establish optical mesh networks in space by using wireless laser communication.
Transport networks, the underlying optical fiber-based layer of telecommunications networks, evolved from digital cross-connect system (DCS)-based mesh architectures in the 1980s, to SONET/SDH (Synchronous Optical Networking/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) ring architectures in the 1990s. In DCS-based mesh architectures, telecommunications carriers deployed restoration systems for DS3 circuits such as AT&T FASTAR (FAST Automatic Restoration) and MCI Real Time Restoration (RTR), restoring circuits in minutes after a network failure. In SONET/SDH rings, carriers implemented ring protection such as SONET Unidirectional Path Switched Ring (UPSR) (also called Sub-Network Connection Protection (SCNP) in SDH networks) or SONET Bidirectional Line Switched Ring (BLSR) (also called Multiplex Section - Shared Protection Ring (MS-SPRing) in SDH networks), protecting against and recovering from a network failure in 50 ms or less, a significant improvement over the recovery time supported in DCS-based mesh restoration, and a key driver for the deployment of SONET/SDH ring-based protection.
There have been attempts at improving and/or evolving traditional ring architectures to overcome some of its limitations, with trans-oceanic ring architecture (defined in ITU-T Rec. G.841), "P-cycles" protection, next-generation SONET/SDH equipment that can handle multiple rings, or has the ability to not close the working or protection ring side, or to share protection capacity among rings (e.g., with Virtual Line Switched Ring (VLSR)).
Technological advancements in optical transport switches in the first decade of the 21st century, along with continuous deployment of dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) systems, have led telecommunications service providers to replace their SONET ring architectures by mesh-based architectures for new traffic. The new optical mesh networks support the same fast recovery previously available in ring networks while achieving better capacity efficiency and resulting in lower capital cost. Such fast recovery (in the tens to hundreds of milliseconds) in case of failures (e.g., network link or node failure) is achieved through the intelligence embedded in these new optical transport equipment, which allows recovery to be automatic and handled within the network itself as part of the network control plane, without relying on an external network management system.
Optical mesh networks refer to transport networks that are built directly off the mesh-like fiber infrastructure deployed in metropolitan, regional, national, or international (e.g., trans-oceanic) areas by deploying optical transport equipment that is capable of switching traffic (at the wavelength or sub-wavelength level) from an incoming fiber to an outgoing fiber. In addition to switching wavelengths, the equipment is typically also able to multiplex lower speed traffic into wavelengths for transport, and to groom traffic (as long as the equipment is so-called opaque - see subsection on transparency). Finally, these equipment also provide for the recovery of traffic in case of a network failure. As most of the transport networks evolve toward mesh topologies utilizing intelligent network elements (optical cross-connects or optical switches ) for provisioning and recovery of services, new approaches have been developed for the design, deployment, operations and management of mesh optical networks.
Optical switches built by companies such as Sycamore and Ciena (with STS-1 granularity of switching) and Tellium (with STS-48 granularity of switching) have been deployed in operational mesh networks. Calien has built all-optical switches based on 3D MEMS technology.
Optical mesh networks today not only provide trunking capacity to higher-layer networks, such as inter-router or inter-switch connectivity in an IP, MPLS, or Ethernet-centric packet infrastructure, but also support efficient routing and fast failure recovery of high-bandwidth point-to-point Ethernet and SONET/SDH services.