CTTC Optical Networking Area

Research in optical networking technologies is performed at Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC) within its Optical Networking Area (ONA), whose goal is the evolution of telecommunication systems towards intelligent, dynamically reconfigurable all-optical transport networks. Currently, research work is based on enhancing the intelligence, efficiency, robustness, capacity and cost-effectiveness of Wavelength-Switched Optical Networks (WSON) and Connection-oriented Ethernet (COE) through Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching/Path Computation Element (GMPLS/PCE) and Optical Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (Optical OFDM) technologies. This research goal is approached in two generic research lines that encompass several specific scientific and technological objectives:

• The Optical network control and service management research line addresses the service-aware network architectures, protocols and traffic engineering algorithms (provisioning, protection and restoration strategies) in order to provide effective quality-enabled optical services for multi-layer and multi-domain networks.
• The Optical transmission and systems research line focuses on optical transmission technologies and advanced performance monitoring techniques for high-capacity all-optical (transparent) transport networks.

Demonstration is performed within the context of the ADRENALINE testbed® (All-optical Dynamic REliable Network hAndLINg IP/Ethernet Gigabit traffic with QoS), a GMPLS-enabled Intelligent Optical Network developed by the Optical Networking research area of the CTTC.

ADRENALINE testbed®

General view of the ADRENALINE Testbed® in CTTC Optical Networking Labs Architecture of the ADRENALINE Testbed® ADRENALINE architecture has been conceived to jointly address the ever-growing and bursty bandwidth demands of IP data traffic, and the need of replacing the SONET/SDH nodes in transport core networks with cost-efficient solutions. The architecture leverages Connection-oriented Ethernet technologies (enabling flexible packet aggregation and grooming) along with the high-bandwidth offered by the reconfigurable wavelength-routed network functionality (providing end-to-end all-optical connections), both controlled by the intelligence provided by the GMPLS architecture and framework. In the ADRENALINE testbed, we experimentally assess the application of a unified GMPLS control plane, in which Ethernet and optical layers are controlled by a single instance of the control plane, seamlessly providing reconfigurable Ethernet connections over dynamic lightpaths. Advanced and adapted software applications and tools for experimental research have also been designed and deployed, allowing the rapid operation and maintenance of the testbed, including common tasks such as the configuration and parameterization of the network topology, the generation of client requests modelling the behaviour of network customers, or the monitoring, data-mining and statistical processing of obtained results allowing researchers to obtain numerical performance data and to perform experimental research and quantitative comparative analysis. The ADRENALINE testbed® is composed of two main functional blocks; GMPLS-enabled Ethernet over WSON and GMPLS Control Plane Emulator with PCE.

ADRENALINE testbed® gallery

Sep 3rd, 2010 - New Industry-funded project:

Sep 1st, 2010 - New staff member:

Josep Maria Fàbrega has joined the Optical Networking Area as Post-Doc Researcher in the field of coherent optical systems and digital signal processing for transparent optical networks.

Jul 12th, 2010 - New joint conference paper:

The paper "Wavelengths and Regenerators Sharing in GMPLS-controlled WSONs", resulting from a joint activity under the framework of the NoE BONE project with the Scuola Superiore Sant'anna (Italy) and DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark, has been accepted for oral presentation in the IEEE Global Communications Conference (IEEE GLOBECOM 2010), being held in Miami, Florida, USA, December 6-10, 2010.

Jun 16-18th, 2010 - Demo Event:

In the scope of the CELTIC TIGER2 project, CTTC partipates in a Joint demonstration event with Alcatel Bell Labs Lucent France and Marben Products, that will take place in Future Network & Mobile Summit 2010. 16-18 June 2010, Florence, Italy. The demo shows a multi-domain establishment of Ethernet connections on top of a Wavelength Switched Optical Network (WSON).

Jun 8th, 2010 - New joint conference papers:

Three papers have been accepted for oral presentation at the 36th European Conference on Optical Communication 2010 (ECOC 2010), being held in Torino, Italy, on September 19-23, 2010. The paper Lab-Trial of Multi-Domain Lightpath Provisioning with PCE Path Computation combining BRPC and Path-Key Topology Confidentiality in GMPLS Translucent WSON networks is a joint work in collaboration with KDDI R&D Labs; the paper Experimental Demonstration and Comparison of Distributed and Centralized Multi-domain Resilient Translucent WSON is led by KDDI R&D Labs in collaboration with the CTTC Optical Networking Area. Finally, the third accepted paper is Experimental Evaluation of Dynamic PCE-based Path Restoration with Centralized and Distributed Wavelength Assignment in GMPLS-enabled Transparent WSON networks.

May 27th, 2010 - CTTC's PhD fellowship program:

The CTTC's PhD fellowship program for 2010 is open from 27 May to 28 June, 2010. If you have a good academic record and strong motivation for research in optical networks or communications, you can apply here to carry out a PhD thesis with the CTTC Optical Networking Area. For more information, please download the short or extended call announcement.

May 25th, 2010 - New joint journal paper:

The paper "GMPLS-based Multi-domain Restoration: Analysis, Strategies, Policies and Experimental Assessment" in collaboration with Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) has been accepted for publication in the IEEE/OSA Journal of Optical Communications and Networking.

The scientific and technological objectives of the the Optical Networking Area fall within the scope of these research topics:

• Network protection and restoration
• Routing and wavelength assignment (RWA), Traffic grooming algorithms
• Network control protocols (signalling, routing, PCE)
• Self-management and traffic characterization
• Adaptive service provisioning
• Non-intrusive monitoring for performance and fault management
• Automatic model-based testbed configuration
• Optical transmission technologies
• Optical Performance Monitoring techniques
• Optical Network experiments: Performance evaluation

Publications

The list of dissemination of R&D activities carried out by the Optical Networking Area since 2002 comprises the following items:

• Journal/Magazine Papers
• International Conferences
• National Conferences
• PhD. Theses Disseratations
• MSc. Theses Dissertations
• Invited Speeches, Pannels, and Seminars
• News Magazines and Online

Collaboration in R&D Activities

The Optical Networking Area is interested in creating and developing research cooperation with other parties under the framework of R&D projects or bilateral cooperation agreements. This research collaboration contemplate the cooperation of the involved institutions for the exchange of know-how, scientific and technological experience of mutual interest. The main objectives are to produce joint journal/magazine papers and contributions to conferences, exchange of researchers, participation in PhD Thesis evaluation boards, signature of cooperation agreements, etc.:

• Joint research activities
• Research stays
• Visiting Researchers
• Participation in Phd Thesis evaluation boards
• Cooperation agreements

Organization of R&D activities

Optical Networking Area members actively participate in the organization of R&D activities:

• Technical Program Committee (TPC)
• Chairmanship

Awards

The work, effort and achieved results of the Optical Networking Area and its memebers has been awarded with the following distinctions ...

The CTTC Optical Networking Area has a wide and solid experience in Spanish and European public-funded R&D projects in optical networking technologies. Since 2002, the Optical Networking Area has participated in the following public-funded R&D projects:

European R&D projects:

FP7 ICT: NoE BONE, IP STRONGEST. FP6 IST: IP NOBEL, IP NOBEL2. EUREKA CELTIC: TIGER2, 100GET. EUREKA ITEA: TBONES.

Spanish R&D projects:

Fundamental research: PROYECTO I+D DORADO, PROYECTO I+D RESPLANDOR. Applied research: PROFIT DREAMS, PU EMPIRICO. Integrated actions: ACI GAUDI. Thematic networks: AC G/MPLS, AC MULTILAYER.

Catalan R&D projects:

INFOREGIO: PAIS. CIDEM: DREAMS.

Currently, The Optical Networking Area is leading the fundamental research project DORADO (TEC2009-07995). Previosly, the Optical Networking Area led the fundamental research project RESPLANDOR (TEC-2006-12910), and the Internacional complementary action GAUDI (PCI2006-A7-0715) with the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) from Japan.

On-going Public-funded R&D Projects:

• Especific GMPLS-related developments, such as the integration of new, experimental or proprietary control plane extensions both in signaling or routing, along with their experimental assesment and evaluation.
• Conception of adapted or adhoc algorithms and heuristics.
• Acquisition of ADRENALINE Testbed KnowHow, architecture and methodologies.
• Performance Evaluation of given network topologies, scenarios or novel architectures (i.e., based on GMPLS control plane and related technologies)
• Measurement-based research, covering topics such as scalability or stability.
• Software licenses of ADRENALINE Testbed components
• Software applications and techniques for Testbed modelling and maintenance.
• Patent Licenses from the CTTC Optical Networking Area Portfolio.

ADRENALINE testbed services

• Wavelength-switched optical network
  • IP/Ethernet/SDH network performance testing
  • Measurement of physical optical impairments
  • Test and validation of future transport services
  • Test and validation of network equipment (vendors and manufacturers)

• GMPLS-enabled control plane
  • Control plane scalability and stability
  • Control plane interoperability and conformance testing
  • Performace evaluation of dynamic lambda-services
  • Testbed interconnection

Dissemination Activities

The dissemination of Technology Transfer activities and ADRENALINE testbed services carried out by the Optical Networking Area since 2004 comprises the following items:

• Invited Speeches, Pannels and Events
• New magazines and online

The CTTC Optical Networking Area started its technology transfer activites on 2008, being consolidated as strategic partner for Research and Technology Transfer projects in optical networking technologies. Since 2008, the Optical Networking Area has participated in the following industry-funded projects:

Industrial Grants for Research Projects: KDDI R&D Labs: RAION, RAION2, RAION3, RAION4. Technology Transfer Contracts: KDDI Corporation: KDDI-PCE. Service contracts: Telefónica I+D: PHOTONET. Subcontracting contracts for Research Projects : DIMAT: CENIT ENERGOS.

On-going Industrial Contracts:

Patent Portfolio

The patent portfolio owned by the CTTC in optical networking topics since 2006 comprises the following items:

• F. Galán, R. Muñoz, Method For Logical Deployment, Undeployment and Monitoring of a Target IP Network, request (PCT/EP2006/009960) 16 October 2006, WIPO Publication with ISR (WO2008/046429) 24 April 2008

The Optical Networking Area has a full-time research staff composed of PhDs (Research Associate and Post-Doc Researcher) and research-oriented engineers (Research Engineer), combining telecommunications, Electronics and Computer science skills. Additionally, the Optical Networking Area counts with the collaboration of part-time researchers both from Academia and Industry (Associate Researcher). The last, but not least, group of people involved in the Optical Networking Area are the PhD Candidates.

• Research Associate: Raül Muñoz, Ramon Casellas, Ricardo Martínez, Michela Svaluto
• Post-Doc Research Associate: Josep Maria Fàbrega
• Associate Researcher: Gabriel Junyent, Carolina Pinart
• Research Engineer: F. Javier Vílchez, Ricardo Vilalta
• Contractor Research Engineer: Javier A. Vázquez
• PhD Candidate: Anica Bukva, Marcin Chochol

Do you want to do a M.Sc. or a Ph.D. with us? One of the main goals is to provide undergraduate and pre-doctoral training in an experimental environment, and in R&D activities related with optical networking technology of high scientific-technical reputation.

The Optical Networking Area offers training positions within CTTC undergraduate and pre-doctoral programs:

• PhD Thesis proposals: The CTTC's PhD fellowship program for 2010 is closed.
• Diploma Thesis Proposals: Currently there is no grant to support students doing the Diploma Thesis. If you are interested, please contact us.

Interested in a career at the Optical Networking Area? The CTTC periodically publishes a list of open positions for Research Associate and Research Engineer, or by spontaneous application. The CTTC's post-doctoral fellowship program is permanently open. The CTTC is also interested in filling new engineers for temporary positions linked with on-going R&D and technology transfer projects.

Currently, the CTTC offers the following open positions for the Optical Networking Area:

• Post-Doc Positions: For specific information about the offered position click here. If you are interested you can apply here, and contact us by email.
• Spontaneous applications: If you are interested in registering your resume in the CTTC database for future Research Associate and Engineering positions, you can apply here and contact us by email.