Transparency in optical networks

This paper deals with some aspects of optical networking technology which are expected to play a key role in future photonic networks. The guiding crossconnect designs and underlying generic architectures are addressed, with special emphasis on transparency constraint problems. The results indicate that there are many different optical approaches, but due to their complexity and the types of specific components used, most of them somehow fail to meet the stringent requirements of a future transparent infrastructure. Because the concept transparency is not used uniformly in the technical context, a method is also presented supporting the techno-economic assessment of transparent optical paths in transport networks. A formalised graphic description is used here which can especially be applied to network management systems.