An arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) based multi-core and multi-wavelength interconnection network, comprising N upper-level switches, N lower-level switches, and a network intermediate stage, with each upper- and lower-level switches has N CWDM optical transceiving modules. The N optical transceiving modules of each upper-level switch is connected with n m?1 multi-core optical multiplexing modules, the N optical transceiving modules of each lower-level switch is connected with n 1?m multi-core demultiplexing modules, the network intermediate stage is comprised of n.sup.2 r?r multi-core and multi-wavelength wiring modules. The upper-level multi-core optical multiplexing modules, the lower-level multi-core demultiplexing modules, and the n.sup.2 r?r multi-core and multi-wavelength wiring modules of the network intermediate stage are connected via an m-core MPO-MPO optical fiber jumper. The wiring complexity of the interconnection network is O(N.sup.2/r), with employment of a wavelength set of ?={?.sub.0, . . . , ?.sub.k-1}. The present invention conserves wavelength resources of communication windows, enhances scalability of the AWG based interconnection network, while reduces network wiring complexity.

A method and apparatus for optimizing optical transport using a software defined network (SDN) controller are disclosed herein. The SDN controller may define a margin optimization function based on at least one optical system performance metric. The function may include at least one related initiation criterion. Further, the SDN controller may collect at least one measurement for the performance metric. The measurement may include an assessment of deployed carriers not carrying client data. The SDN controller may determine whether the initiation criterion is met based on at least one collected measurement. The SDN controller may select a system margin optimization mechanism and define a system margin optimization threshold criterion on a condition that the initiation criterion is met. The SDN controller may determine whether the optimization threshold criterion is met. The SDN controller may implement one or more optimization events on a condition that the optimization threshold criterion is met.

A method of transmitting communications traffic in an optical communication network comprising a plurality of nodes, the method comprising, at a source node: receiving communications traffic to be transmitted across the optical communication network to a target node; obtaining a path sequence defining an order in which a plurality of optical paths from the source node to the target node across the optical communication network are to be used, at least part of each optical path being spatially separate from each other optical path; and transmitting the communications traffic as a series of traffic portions, each traffic portion being transmitted for a respective preselected transmission period on a respective optical path according to the path sequence.

An optical transmission system and transmission method, an optical switching apparatus, and a control method are provided. Any data transmission apparatus included in an optical transmission system is configured to: transmit an optical label signal and a continuous data signal including an idle sequence and a data packet, and transmit the transmitted optical label signal to an optical switching apparatus, so that the optical switching apparatus builds, according to the optical label signal, a switching and transmission path for transmitting the continuous data signal transmitted by the any data transmission apparatus. This ensures that a data transmission apparatus transmits a continuous data signal, and also ensures that each optical receiving system can receive the continuous data signal. Therefore, no preamble needs to be added before a data packet carried in a to-be-processed data signal, thereby avoiding a resource waste and saving bandwidth resources.

The present disclosure relates to systems and method for deploying a fiber optic network. Distribution devices are used to index fibers within the system to ensure that live fibers are provided at output locations throughout the system. In an example, fibers can be indexed in multiple directions within the system. In an example, fibers can be stored and deployed form storage spools.

For optical routing, a processor detects an optical data packet communicated over at least one optical subcarrier of a plurality of optical subcarriers. The processor further detects each of the plurality of optical subcarriers over which the optical data packet is carried. The processor generates a label including one or more asserted optical subcarrier values corresponding to each of the plurality of optical subcarriers over which the optical data packet is carried. In addition, the processor routes the optical data packet from the optical switch based on a routing action associated with the label.

Systems and methods for efficient prioritized restoration of services implemented in a node in a network utilizing a control plane include releasing higher priority services affected by a fault on a link adjacent to the node immediately via control plane signaling such that the higher priority services mesh restore; tracking mesh restoration of the released higher priority services; and releasing lower priority services based on the tracking, subsequent to the mesh restoration of the higher priority services, wherein the higher priority services and the lower priority services comprise one or more of Optical Transport Network (OTN) connections, Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) connections, and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) connections.

A station-side terminal apparatus comprises terminal devices and a terminal device sorting unit. The terminal devices includes: a buffer unit; a subscriber-side terminal apparatus sorting unit configured to transmit a unicast packet addressed to a switch-target subscriber-side terminal apparatus to the switch queues, and transmit a packet addressed to a plurality of subscriber-side terminal apparatuses to the broadcast queue, and transmit a unicast packet addressed to a non-switch-target subscriber-side terminal apparatus to the through queue; and a scheduler unit configured to read a packet from the switch queues, the broadcast queue, and the through queue. The terminal device sorting unit is configured to transmit a received unicast packet to the terminal device, and transmit a received packet addressed to a plurality of subscriber-side terminal apparatuses, to each of the terminal devices.

A network component comprising a generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) control plane controller configured to implement a method comprising transmitting a message to at least one adjacent control plane controller, wherein the message comprises a Type-Length-Value (TLV) indicating Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) information, wherein the TLV comprises a Node Attribute TLV, a Link Set TLV, or both, and wherein the TLV further comprises at least one sub-TLV indicating additional RWA information. A method comprising communicating an open shortest path first (OSPF) link state advertisement (LSA) message comprising a TLV with at least one sub-TLV to a GMPLS control plane controller, wherein the TLV comprises a Node Attribute TLV, a Link Set TLV, or both, and wherein the TLV further comprises at least one sub-TLV indicating RWA information.

In general, techniques are described for transmitting context information defining contexts for packet labels in a network. More specifically, a network device, e.g., a router, implements the context transmission techniques to facilitate debugging or troubleshooting of the network. The network device may comprise an interface card that receives a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) data unit from another network device in accordance with a label switching protocol. The data unit may include a label stack affixed to a payload. The label stack may include one or more MPLS labels and context information associated with at least one of these labels, The interface card may, when forwarding the data unit, parse the data unit to determine the context information and then forward the data unit in accordance with these MPLS labels. A control unit included within the network device may record the forwarding of the data unit and the determined context information.