Trends in Optical Networking

In today's telecommunications environment, change is rapid pervasive: traffic is growing exponentially, fuelled by both consumer and business demands: new optical technologies are allowing capacity to keep pace with demand, and are enabling new services: the regulatory environment is changing almost daily; and competition is intensifying on all fronts. In such an environment, choosing the right transport network, and the proper evolutionary path toward realising it, becomes a difficult and perilous proposition, as there are many variables to weigh, and substantial risks to consider. In this paper, we discuss the key factors affecting the evolution of the transport network, and provide guidance for future-proofing the transport infrastructure. We begin by viewing traffic growth as the key driver behind the evolution of the transport network, and optical technology as the key enable of transport evolution. We then address the key needs of transport networks: capacity growth, flexible capacity management, protcol evolution,a nd protection/restoration. We will show the elements of Lucent's transport network vision and the benefits accruing to service-providers that develop a transport infrastructure that is truly future-proofed.