Optical Network Control and Management

The task of network control and management is generally realized in two logical planes – control and management – which collaboratively operate to ensure smooth, secure, and survivable traffic flow in the data plane of the network. Some of the functionalities are realized in the control plane, needing real-time execution, such as recovery from network failures, and network reconfiguration due to traffic variation. Other functionalities deal with performance monitoring, configuration management, network security, accounting and billing etc., which are less time-sensitive and are addressed by the management plane. We first discuss the philosophy of multiple-layer abstraction of telecommunication networks, including control, management, and data planes, and then describe various network control and management techniques used in optical networks: operation, administration, and management (OAM) in SONET, generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS), automatically switched optical network (ASON), and software-defined optical networking (SDON) in WDM networks. (141 words)