Customer-controlled and -managed optical networks

Abstract

There is a growing trend for many large enterprises and other users to acquire their own dark fibers and/or point-to-point wavelengths in condominium network architectures. These customer-owned and -managed networks have necessitated the development of a new set of optical network management tools and protocols. These tools and protocols are based on the new Open Grid Services Architecture and other space-based distributed protocols such as Jini and JavaSpaces that will allow end users to independently manage their own portion of a condominium wide area optical network. Participants in such a network will be able to perform their own restoral and protection, optical add-drop multiplexing, or cross-connect to other users on a peer-to-peer basis without signaling or requesting service from a centrally managed entity.