This book presents advances in the field of optical networks - specifically on research and applications in elastic optical networks (EON). The material reflects the authors’ extensive research and industrial activities and includes contributions from preeminent researchers and practitioners in optical networking. The authors discuss the new research and applications that address the issue of increased bandwidth demand due to disruptive, high bandwidth applications, e.g., video and cloud applications. The book also discusses issues with traffic not only increasing but becoming much more dynamic, both in time and direction, and posits immediate, medium, and long-term solutions throughout the text. The book is intended to provide a reference for network architecture and planning, communication systems, and control and management approaches that are expected to steer the evolution of EONs.

This book introduces the reader to the optical switching technology for its application to data centers. In addition, it takes a picture of the status of the technology and system architecture evolution and of the research in the area of optical switching in data center. The book is organized in four parts: the first part is focused on the system aspects of optical switching in intra-data center networking, the second part is dedicated to describing the recently demonstrated optical switching networks, the third part deals with the latest technologies developed to enable optical switching and, finally, the fourth part of the book outlines the future prospects and trends.

The increasingly important role of Internet-based, “cloud” service delivery is motivating the evolution of the Internet to a flatter hierarchy of more densely interconnecting networks that shall cost-effectively scale to Zettabytes of bandwidth with improved operational efficiency, under increased traffic variability, and forecast unpredictability. This chapter reviews the implications of this evolution in its underlying metro regional and core transport network architectures, and evaluates the most important innovations in photonics, optical transport, routing, and traffic engineering technologies enabling it. Most notably, 1) a new generation of coherent DWDM systems with more than 2 b/s/Hz spectral efficiency is scaling the existing fiber infrastructure, albeit at a significantly higher proportion, typically more than 50%, of the total transport network cost, while 2) the convergence of IP/MPLS with flexible DWDM promises the most cost-efficient transport evolution, in open architectures that combine advancements in photonics, routing, multi-layer control-plane and management coordination, with interoperability, to improve operation, automate provisioning and restoration, and may optimize network utilization.

This book investigates new enabling technologies for Fi-Wi convergence. The editors discuss Fi-Wi technologies at the three major network levels involved in the path towards convergence: system level, network architecture level, and network management level. The main topics will be: a. At system level: Radio over Fiber (digitalized vs. analogic, standardization, E-band and beyond) and 5G wireless technologies; b. Network architecture level: NGPON, WDM-PON, BBU Hotelling, Cloud Radio Access Networks (C-RANs), HetNets. c. Network management level: SDN for convergence, Next-generation Point-of-Presence, Wi-Fi LTE Handover, Cooperative MultiPoint.

This handbook provides comprehensive knowledge on device and system technologies for seamlessly integrated networks of various types of transmission media such as optical fibers and millimeter and THz waves to offer super high-speed data link service everywhere. The seamless integration of the knowledge of radio and optical technologies is needed to construct wired and wireless seamless networks. High-frequency bands such as millimeter-wave and THz-wave bands where super wideband spectra are available can offer high-speed data transmission and high-resolution sensing. However, the expected coverage is limited due to large wave propagation loss. Thus, convergence of radio and optical links is indispensable to construct worldwide networks. The radio and optical technologies share the same physics and are closely related to each other but have been developed independently. Therefore, there is a big gap between these two fields. Bridging the two fields, this handbook is also intended as a common platform to design integrated networks consisting of wireless and wired links. Full coverage of wireless and wired convergence fields ranging from basics of device and transmission media to applications allows the reader to efficiently access all the important references in this single handbook. Further, it also showcases state-of-the-art technology and cases of its use.

With the invention of the laser it was possible to think about a fast and efficient way to make the information transmission, thus originating the first ideas of transmission through wave guides. This led to the invention of the optical fibers, for which scientific-technological research has been constantly developed in order to improve the efficiency of information transmission for different applications. Then, various techniques and materials used for the manufacture of optical fibers have been developed, which have been improved over the years, obtaining high efficiency in the transmission of information, as well as different types of optical fiber applications. This book intends to provide the reader a review of some different fiber optic applications as well as some ideas about the future of growing in this important technological area.

This book presents new research contributions in the above-mentioned fields. Information and communication technologies (ICT) have an integral role in today’s society. Four major driving pillars in the field are computing, which nowadays enables data processing in unprecedented speeds, informatics, which derives information stemming for processed data to feed relevant applications, networking, which interconnects the various computing infrastructures and cybersecurity for addressing the growing concern for secure and lawful use of the ICT infrastructure and services. Its intended readership covers senior undergraduate and graduate students in Computer Science and Engineering and Electrical Engineering, as well as researchers, scientists, engineers, ICT managers, working in the relevant fields and industries.