Research and development on optical wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks have matured considerably. While optics and electronics should be used appropriately for transmission and switching hardware, note that "intelligence'' in any network comes from "software,'' for network control, management, signaling, traffic engineering, network planning, etc.The role of software in creating powerful network architectures for optical WDM networks is emphasized. Optical WDM Networks is a textbook for graduate level courses. Its focus is on the networking aspects of optical networking, but it also includes coverage of physical layers in optical networks. The author introduces WDM and its enabling technologies and discusses WDM local, access, metro, and long-haul network architectures. Each chapter is self-contained, has problems at the end of each chapter, and the material is organized for self study as well as classroom use. The material is the most recent and timely in capturing the state-of-the-art in the fast-moving field of optical WDM networking.

Optical WDM networking technology is spearheading a bandwidth revolution in the networking infrastructure being developed for the next generation Internet. Rapid advances in optical components have enabled the transition from point-to-point WDM links to all-optical networking. Optical WDM Networks: Principles and Practice presents some of the most important challenges facing the optical networking community, along with some suggested solutions. Earlier textbooks in optical networking have a narrower perspective, and rapidly advancing research has created the need for fresh and current information on problems and issues in the field. The volume editors and contributing authors have endeavoured to capture a substantial subset of the key problems and known solutions to these problems. All of the chapters are original contributions from leading international researchers. The chapters address a wide variety of topics, including the state of the art in WDM technology, physical components that make up WDM fiber-optic networks, medium access protocols, wavelength routed networks, optical access networks, network management, and performance evaluation of wavelength routing networks. The chapters also survey critical points in past research and tackle more recent problems. Practitioners and network product engineers interested in current state-of-the-art information beyond textbook-type coverage, and graduate students commencing research in this area, will appreciate the concise - and pertinent - information presented herein.

The essential guide to the state of the art in WDM and its vast networking potential As a result of its huge transmission capacity and countless other advantages, fiber optics has fostered a bandwidth revolution, addressing the constantly growing demand for increased bandwidth. Within this burgeoning area, Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) has emerged as a breakthrough technology for exploiting the capacity of optical fibers. Today, WDM is deployed by many network providers for point-to-point transmission-but there is strong momentum to develop it as a full-fledged networking technology in its own right. The telecommunications industry, network service providers, and research communities worldwide are paying close attention. Optical WDM Networks presents an easy-to-follow introduction to basic concepts, key issues, effective solutions, and state-of-the-art technologies for wavelength-routed WDM networks. Responding to the need for resources focused on the networking potential of WDM, the book is organized in terms of the most important networking aspects, such as: * Network control architecture * Routing and wavelength assignment * Virtual topology design and reconfiguration * Distributed lightpath control and management * Optical-layer protection and restoration * IP over WDM * Trends for the future in optical networks Each chapter includes examples and problems that illustrate and offer practical application of concepts, as well as extensive references for further reading. This is an essential resource for professionals and students in electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science as well as network engineers, designers, planners, operators, and managers who seek a backbone of knowledge in optical networks.

Internet information (which is doubling every six months) travels through optical fibers. Today, optical fibers are being installed where a single fiber has the ability to carry information as much as 200 times faster than was possible just five years ago. This revolutionary capability is being achieved with technology known as wavelength division multiplexing WDM). WDM technology relies on the fact that optical fibers can carry many wavelengths of light simultaneously without interaction between each wavelength. Thus, a single fiber can carry many separate wavelength signals or channels simultaneously. The communications industry is at the onset of new expansion of WDM technology necessary to meet the new demand for bandwidth. WDM Technologies: Optical Networks deals with the Networks facet of this field (present and future). - Allows engineers working in optical communications(from systems to components) to understand the principles and mechanics of each key component they deal with for optical system design - Provides an excellent resource for engineers and researchers engaged in all aspects of fiber optic communications, such as optoelectronics, equipment/system design, and manufacturing - Provides comprehensive coverage of key concepts in optical networks and their application in commercial systems

This helpful guide provides practicing engineers, students, and researchers with a systematic, up-to-date introduction to the fundamental concepts, challenges, and state-of-the-art developments in WDM optical networks. The authors rely extensively on real-world examples and draw on the latest research to cover optical network design and provisioning in far greater depth than any other book.

With the advent of wavelength routing and dynamic, reconfigurable optical networks, new demands are being made in the design and operation of optical amplifiers. This book provides, for the first time, a comprehensive review of optical amplifier technology in the context of these recent advances in the field. It demonstrates how to manage the trade-offs between amplifier design, network architecture and system management and operation. The book provides an overview of optical amplifiers and reconfigurable networks before examining in greater detail the issues of importance to network operators and equipment manufacturers, including 40G and 100G transmission. Optical amplifier design is fully considered, focusing on fundamentals, design solutions and amplifier performance limitations. Finally, the book discusses other emerging applications for optical amplifiers such as optical networks for high data rate systems, free space systems, long single span links and optical digital networks. This book will be of great value to R&D engineers, network and systems engineers, telecommunications service providers, component suppliers, industry analysts, network operators, postgraduate students, academics and anyone seeking to understand emerging trends in optical networks and the consequent changes in optical amplifier design, features and applications. Provides an in depth and focused review of the new reconfigurable network architecture and its impact on optical amplifiers Addresses 40G and 100G transmission and networking Written by experts in the field with deep technical knowledge and practical experience of commercial practice and concerns

Lo, soul! seest thou not God's purpose from the first? The earth to be spann'd, connected by net-work From Passage to India! Walt Whitman, "Leaves of Grass", 1900. The Internet is growing at a tremendous rate today. New services, such as telephony and multimedia, are being added to the pure data-delivery framework of yesterday. Such high demands on capacity could lead to a "bandwidth-crunch" at the core wide-area network resulting in degra dation of service quality. Fortunately, technological innovations have emerged which can provide relief to the end-user to overcome the In ternet's well-known delay and bandwidth limitations. At the physical layer, a major overhaul of existing networks has been envisaged from electronic media (such as twisted-pair and cable) to optical fibers - in the wide area, in the metropolitan area, and even in the local area set tings. In order to exploit the immense bandwidth potential of the optical fiber, interesting multiplexing techniques have been developed over the years. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is such a promising tech nique in which multiple channels are operated along a single fiber si multaneously, each on a different wavelength. These channels can be independently modulated to accommodate dissimilar bit rates and data formats, if so desired. Thus, WDM carves up the huge bandwidth of an optical fiber into channels whose bandwidths (1-10 Gbps) are compati ble with peak electronic processing speed.