A dark fiber design tool for hardware, circuits, and paths is provided. A method can include generating, by a device comprising a processor, a data record comprising properties of a group of hardware elements associated with a wireless communication network; establishing, by the device, a set of rules that define permissible interactions between respective hardware elements of the group of hardware elements based on the data record; building, by the device, a circuit plan associated with the wireless communication network, the circuit plan comprising optical connections between the respective hardware elements of the group of hardware elements as determined based on the data record and the set of rules; and associating, by the device, respective optical wavelength paths with respective ones of the optical connections of the circuit plan further based on the set of rules.

It is difficult to improve the usage efficiency of an optical communication network due to the passband narrowing effect in a wavelength selection process in an optical communication network using a wavelength division multiplexing system; therefore, an optical network management apparatus according to an exemplary aspect of the present invention includes wavelength selection information generating means for generating wavelength selection information on a wavelength selection process through which an optical path accommodating an information signal goes, with respect to each optical path; and wavelength selection information notifying means for notifying an optical node device through which the optical path goes of the wavelength selection information.

A method for optical restoration in an optical network is provided. A network controller obtains, from one or more optical nodes of an optical network, at least one failure notification indicating a failure of a primary path between a first node and a second node. The network controller forwards to a first set of optical nodes, data-plane parameters for optical components of the first set of optical nodes. The first set of optical nodes include the first node, the second node, and one or more intermediate nodes, and forms a restoration path for the primary path. The data-plane parameters for the optical components are forwarded in parallel to the first set of optical nodes of the restoration path so as to activate the restoration path in parallel. The network controller switches traffic from the primary path to the restoration path.

The application discloses an optical network planning method for asymmetric traffic transmission over a multi-core fiber optical network and a network using the same. The method comprises: acquiring an asymmetric traffic demand over a multi-core fiber optical network to obtain a target service; establishing a corresponding route depending on the target service, and selecting cores in a multi-core fiber and allocating corresponding frequency slots in an interleaving and counter-propagating manner to each link along the route to optimize optical network planning and design. With the method provided by the application, through selecting cores in a multi-core fiber and allocating corresponding frequency slots in an interleaving and counter-propagating manner to each link along the route, the inter-core crosstalk is suppressed and network capacity efficiency is increased, thereby optimizing optical network planning and design for traffic transmission over the multi-core fiber optical network.

A software-defined network multi-layer controller (SDN-MLC) may communicate with multiple layers of a telecommunication network. The SDN-MLC may have an optimization algorithm that helps in capacity planning of the telecommunications based on the management of multiple layers of the telecommunication network.

In one embodiment, a first optical network device includes a controller, and a first network interface, wherein the first network interface is configured to exchange data with a first layer 3 network device, and the controller is configured to obtain at least one optical circuit attribute including an optical circuit distance and/or an optical circuit latency of a first optical circuit in an optical network, and provide the at least one optical circuit attribute to the first layer 3 network device. Related apparatus and methods are also described.

The application discloses an optical network planning method for asymmetric traffic transmission over a multi-core fiber optical network and a network using the same. The method comprises: acquiring an asymmetric traffic demand over a multi-core fiber optical network to obtain a target service; establishing a corresponding route depending on the target service, and selecting cores in a multi-core fiber and allocating corresponding frequency slots in an interleaving and counter-propagating manner to each link along the route to optimize optical network planning and design. With the method provided by the application, through selecting cores in a multi-core fiber and allocating corresponding frequency slots in an interleaving and counter-propagating manner to each link along the route, the inter-core crosstalk is suppressed and network capacity efficiency is increased, thereby optimizing optical network planning and design for traffic transmission over the multi-core fiber optical network. (FIG. 2)

It is difficult to improve the usage efficiency of an optical communication network due to the passband narrowing effect in a wavelength selection process in an optical communication network using a wavelength division multiplexing system; therefore, an optical network management apparatus according to an exemplary aspect of the present invention includes wavelength selection information generating means for generating wavelength selection information on a wavelength selection process through which an optical path accommodating an information signal goes, with respect to each optical path; and wavelength selection information notifying means for notifying an optical node device through which the optical path goes of the wavelength selection information.

A method for managing a telecommunication network comprising the steps of identification, by the central controller, of an updated condition of availability of resources of the network, and association of a plurality of updated sequences of instructions, comparison of the plurality of updated sequences of instructions with a plurality of not updated sequences of instructions associated with the last condition of availability. In case that the plurality of updated sequences of instructions is different from the plurality of not updated sequences of instructions, a step is provided of sending an updated sequence of instructions to each nodal device, on the basis of the service class of the data traffic of the device. A step is furthermore provided of checking, by the local controller, a condition of service of the data traffic at time ranges , said updated sequence of instructions associating to each condition of service an optimal working status to be attributed to the data traffic. A step is then provided of comparison of the condition of service with an optimal condition of service and, in case that the condition of service is different, a step is provided of starting, by the local controller, the updated sequence of instructions for changing a status of the data traffic. It is further provided a step of sending to the central controller data concerning the change of the working status.

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.