Abstract

Today, metro/regional network operators are migrating from inefficient solutions that are not operationally scalable, to more advanced optical solutions that can efficiently scale to high bandwidth. With increasing number of wavelengths and in combination with usage of amplifiers the provisioning of traffic is more complex, restricted and challenging. When introducing the ROADM concept in an add-drop ring where you drop and add channels in both directions it is complex to maintain the per-channel power as well as gain flatness through all possible combinations of traffic patterns (especially when experiencing fiber breaks where many wavelengths are lost at the same time). New technologies developed for the ROADM function itself enables a new generation of agile photonic networks. The real innovation is in the system engineering around the ROADM function to address per channel power measurement and management, per-wavelength fault isolation, etc.

© 2005 Optical Society of America