TABLE OF CONTENTS Timothy P. Walker,
AMCC
Khurram Kazi,
SMSC
The advancements in optics, photonics, electronics, software, and human expertise ensure the continual evolution of telecommunication and data networks. Over and over again, we have seen that present-day transport networks become tomorrow's access networks. We have witnessed Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH) networks that once were the backbone of the network operators, with the widespread laying of the optical fiber, become the feeding data pipes to Synchronous Optical Networks or Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH). The single optical channel transport system based on SONET/SDH standards proved to be very successful for its time. With the advent of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexer Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer (DWDM-OADM), optical amplifiers, and Optical Cross-Connects (OXCs), we are witnessing a paradigm shift, where SONET/SDH networks are slowly becoming the feeding pipes to an "all-optical" transport network, better know as the Optical Transport Network (OTN). Since the telecom bubble burst, the rush to deploy OTN has been much slower that originally anticipated.
With each paradigm shift, the standards committees are faced with the challenge of defining new standards that become the foundation or the blueprints [1] for the network service providers, equipment manufacturers, and users alike. Every effort is made to ensure that such standards are general enough so as not to be limited by the present technology yet provide enough information such that interoperability between different service providers or equipment manufacturers is seamless. International Telecommunication Union-Standardization Sector (ITU-T) has been leading the efforts in defining the...
