Next generation optical network for Broadband European Leadership phase 2

Project Information

NOBEL PHASE 2

Grant agreement ID: 027305

Start date 1 March 2006

End date 29 February 2008

Funded under

• Information Society Technologies: thematic priority under the specific programme "Integrating and strengthening the European research area" (2002-2006).

Total cost € 21 237 629,00

EU contribution € 12 109 996,00

Coordinated by

TELECOM ITALIA SPA
Italy

Exploitable results

Independent, multi-service optical network transport infrastructure

Fueled by the increasing Internet protocol (IP) traffic, the rollout of residential broadband and high speed mobile services as well as the emerging demand for Ethernet-based private line and local area network (LAN) services, packet-oriented network traffic is continuously growing. To support the traffic growth, the prevalence of different packet-based services require for a packet-optimized transport layer which maintains the carrier-class OAM and resilience features traditional SDH offers. As network operators aim at improving their profitability by introducing new revenue generating services and managing their capital (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX), modular platform solutions are necessary. These reduce costs by an increased integration due to technology/layer convergence, lower power consumption/real estate and provide a simpler installation, operation and maintenance by extended plug-and-play features. The built-in scalability facilitates a future-proof growth in line with increasing traffic demands. Whilst private and business IP services are important in their own right, managed full- and fractional wavelength services, virtual private networks (VPNs) on layer 2 and the efficient transport of storage area network (SAN) protocols call for an independent transport infrastructure which is truly multi-service. Today’s metro and core networks predominantly use node architectures employing circuit switching in the electrical plane, on top of a static optical plane. In a typical network scenario, packet based data traffic is aggregated at the client interfaces and subsequently mapped into circuit switched transport technology and thus the client interface performs the appropriate data-over-SDH capabilities. Obviously these nodes are not capable to support future service demands, wherefore a node architecture evolution, capable to adapt to today’s circuit to future’s data centric traffic is necessary. The main overall goals of WP6 were: - to identify hybrid multi-service/multi-layer node architectures (including electrical packet layer -IP, electrical circuit layer – SDH/SONET/OTN, and advanced optical circuit layer - WDM including functionalities such as optical switching and wavelength conversion & regeneration) supporting the evolutionary network architectures resulting from WP 1; - to evaluate and compare different node architectures with respect to parameters such as cost, performance, implementation complexity, switching granularities, scalability, balance between optics and electronics, active vs. passive configurations; to specify selected node architectures and implement selected functions on a laboratory prototype level (suited for demonstrations in WP 8) incorporating requirements from WP 1-5; - to define requirements for flexible client interfaces and adaptive transport interfaces and to implement prototypes on a laboratory level. In the first year of the project, WP6 formed the framework by introducing the scope of the workpackage and the terminology used. As such, it constituted the foundation and reference for all further work being carried out in WP6. Further on it analysed and defined multiservice/ multi-layer node architectures that can meet the challenges of emerging data-centric networks and respond to the requirements defined by the network-level workpackages. Specifically WP6 provided the requirements for flexible client and adaptive transport interfaces for the multi-layer/multi-service nodes of a NOBEL network and outlined functional requirements of multi-layer/multi-service node architectures. Based on the technical achievements in the first year of the project, in the second year WP6 concentrated on investigating and detailing the implementation options for the multiservice/ multi-layer nodes and their respective interfaces, that corresponded to the specifications provided in the first year. The NOBEL technical results represent a detailed reference frame for the development of effective evolution strategies for all European countries, strongly enhancing the coherence of all efforts devoted to the construction of the Information Society.