An optical network is described that has a first ROADM node, a second ROADM node, and an optical transmission line establishing optical communication between the first ROADM node and the second ROADM node. The optical transmission line including an in-line amplifier node having a total input power and a total output power. The in-line amplifier node has a first monitoring tool configured to measure input optical power of the in-line amplifier node, and a second monitoring tool configured to measure output optical power of the in-line amplifier node. A software defined L0 network controller has circuitry configured to receive the optical power measured by the first and second monitoring tools from the in-line amplifier node, and to configure at least one of a gain and a gain tilt of the in-line amplifier node.

A method in a controller node for performing segment routing in a non-packet data network comprising a plurality of nodes, comprises receiving information relating to the topology of the non-packet data network connecting the plurality of nodes, the non-packet data network forming a data plane network. The method comprises computing a segment routing path to be taken for non-packet traffic data through the data plane network, wherein the segment routing path is computed using segment identifiers, SIDs, relating to a data communication network, DCN, coupled to the plurality of nodes. The method comprises sending the computed segment routing path to an ingress node of the data plane network.

Methods, systems, and optical power controllers are disclosed. Various problems caused by the use of a single L0 power controller in the prior art are addressed by using first and second L0 power controllers with the first L0 power controller managing first optical components with the optical network, and the second L0 power controller managing second optical components within the optical network.

An optical cable router is disclosed. The optical cable router is to couple to rocker-arm plenums of a modular computing system. The optical cable router includes a crossbar that includes an optical cable cavity. The optical cable cavity has a plurality of optical cables and an access panel. The optical cable router further includes optical connectors, each of which is coupled to a respective optical cable of the plurality of optical cables. Each optical connector is also coupled to a respective optical connector of a respective modular computing device retained in the modular computing system.

Systems and methods for self-characterization of a software-defined optical network are disclosed. A test transponder may generate and transmit test traffic using various combinations of transmission parameters to discern physical characteristic of a route between two network elements. The test transponder may compute optical characteristics of the route based on the physical characteristics and transmission parameters. An SDN controller may maintain a characterization database storing test results. The test results may be fed to a machine learning engine, which outputs predictions or recommendations regarding utilization of bandwidth and other resources. The optical network may be adapted to handle requested, observed, or predicted changes in on-demand traffic or traffic surges. The test results may be used to defragment the optical spectrum with minimal or no impact on existing traffic to make space in a flexible grid for newly launched channels or channels being moved to different spectrum locations.

A method of assigning performance indicators to objects of a network employing a computation to assign performance indicators to said objects of said network such that a sum of said performance indicators of objects along a given path in said network in relation to a first threshold value indicates whether said path fulfils a predetermined criterion, and/or indicates whether said path does not fulfil said predetermined criterion. A method of evaluating a performance of a path in a network based on the performance indicators involves the steps of calculating a sum of performance indicators for said objects along said path and evaluating a performance of said path by comparing said sum against a first threshold value.

A device receives network data associated with a network that includes network devices interconnected by links at an Internet protocol (IP) layer and an optical layer of the network. The device receives constraints associated with determining a network plan for the network, and determines multiple potential network plans for the network based on the constraints and the network data. The device generates a multilayer and interactive user interface associated with the multiple potential network plans, and provides the multilayer and interactive user interface to a client device. The device receives, from the client device, information indicating an interaction with the multilayer and interactive user interface, and modifies the multilayer and interactive user interface, based on the information indicating the interaction, to generate a modified multilayer and interactive user interface. The device provides, to the client device, the modified multilayer and interactive user interface.

It is difficult in the elastic optical network to achieve a balance between the improvement in the frequency utilization efficiency and the increase in the probability of opening an optical path; therefore, an optical path controller according to an exemplary aspect of the present invention includes route selection means for searching for a route candidate being a candidate for a route to accommodate an optical path, and selecting a best possible route with a minimum route selection index serving as an index for route search; use rate collecting means for collecting a use rate serving as an index to indicate a usage condition of an optical frequency band in an optical fiber transmission line included in the route candidate; and route selection index judgment means for determining the route selection index based on the use rate.

A network system for a data center is described in which a switch fabric provides full mesh interconnectivity such that any servers may communicate packet data to any other of the servers using any of a number of parallel data paths. Moreover, according to the techniques described herein, edge-positioned access nodes, permutation devices and core switches of the switch fabric may be configured and arranged in a way such that the parallel data paths provide single L2/L3 hop, full mesh interconnections between any pairwise combination of the access nodes, even in massive data centers having tens of thousands of servers. The access nodes may be arranged within access node groups, and permutation devices may be used within the access node groups to spray packets across the access node groups prior to injection within the switch fabric, thereby increasing the fanout and scalability of the network system.

A computer implemented method of configuring an optical path includes selecting with one or more processors a wavelength for the optical path, generating with one or more processors, a first request for a first type of node in the optical path, generating with one or more processors a second request for a second type of node in the optical path, the second type of node having different data plane capabilities than the first type of node, wherein the first and second requests are generated as a function of a joint configuration model accommodating both types of nodes, and sending the first request from the one or more processors to the first type of node and the second request to the second type of node to configure the optical path.