Abstract
Flexible optical networks, based on bandwidth-variable optical
cross-connects (BV-OXCs) and novel flexible transponders, are expected to
significantly improve the overall spectrum efficiency with respect to
traditional networks where fixed frequency spacing is applied. Flexible
optical networks will exploit the BV-OXC capability to dynamically configure
the reserved bandwidth as a set of frequency slots. In addition, flexible
transponders will be employed to dynamically configure transmission
parameters, such as bit-rate and modulation format. To enable these new
configuration capabilities, network operation enhancements need to be
efficiently introduced and investigated. In this study, we focus for the
first time on the Path Computation Element (PCE) architecture for flexible
optical networks. PCE architecture and PCE communication protocol are
enhanced to maximize the spectral efficiency and to provide indications also
on the specific transmission parameters to configure. Experimental
demonstration is provided through two different experiments, successfully
showing the PCE capability to trigger dynamic rerouting with bit-rate or
modulation format adaptation. In particular, the experiments demonstrate, in
a real testbed, dynamic frequency slot assignment and format adaptation from
DP-16QAM to DP-QPSK at 100 Gb/s, and bit-rate adaptation at DP-16QAM from
200 Gb/s to 100 Gb/s.
© 2011 IEEE
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