Short Courses
SC171 Introduction to Optical Control Plane Standards and Technology: OIF UNI, GMPLS, G.ASON and All That!
Sunday, February 24, 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Greg Bernstein; Grotto Networking, USA
Level: Beginner (No background or minimal training is necessary to understand course material)
Course Description
This course introduces the optical control plane standards and techniques developed and continuing to evolve at the IETF, ITU and the OIF. These standards offer new interoperable approaches to controlling optical transport networks. As optical transport networks have grown in capacity (DWDM) and capabilities (new types of switches), the need to automate provisioning for these optical networks has been pressing on equipment vendors and service providers alike. In the past, transport networks were relatively static and typically controlled by a proprietary management system. Element management systems from different vendors did not work together for provisioning end-to-end circuits or for OA&M. This contributed to higher operating expenses, longer provisioning times, longer restoration times, longer training times, etc. This course provides an overview of the key protocols in the optical control plane standards and the functionality provided by these protocols. This functionality includes neighbor discovery, service discovery, link verification, rapid provisioning, dissemination of reachability information, and dissemination of topology and resource status information. Additional restoration options enabled by the optical control plane will also be discussed. Examples from both TDM based optical networks and transparent optical networks consisting of ROADMs will be given.
Benefits and Learning Objectives
This course should enable you to:
- Compare and contrast the usage of these new control plane based standards with Element Management System (EMS) based approaches.
- List the key organizations involved in determining optical control plane standards or agreements and their relationships.
- Describe the differences and similarities in the control of TDM and transparent optical networks.
- Describe the protocols used in the optical control plane in terms of their heritage and functionality.
- Describe the purpose of neighbor discovery.
- Explain the use of link state route protocols as applied to optical networks.
- Discuss the differences between datagram and optical routing with regard to service impact and standardization.
- Summarize and justify the functionality provided by the basic components of the optical control plane.
Intended Audience
This course is an introductory course on optical control plane standards. As such it assumes familiarity with SDH/SONET and WDM technology. Its emphasis will be on explaining the various control plane protocols to those with minimal prior experience in the areas of signaling or routing.
Instructor Biography
Greg Bernstein is chief consultant for Grotto Networking, specializing in optical network control and management planes. He was senior director for software engineering development at Lightera Networks (acquired by Ciena Corp.), where he led the development of intelligent optical switches. He earned his doctor of philosophy, master of science and bachelor of science in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California at Berkeley.