Optical Network Control: Architecture, Protocols, and Standards

6.1. Introduction

Neighbor discovery refers to procedures by which an optical Network Element (NE) automatically determines its connectivity to different types of adjacent elements (called neighbors). Neighbor discovery is perhaps the most useful control plane function. Its utility in a network is independent of whether other distributed control plane functions like routing and signaling are implemented. The connectivity information determined using neighbor discovery procedures is essential for connection routing and provisioning. Without neighbor discovery, the interconnection information must be manually configured in provisioning systems. In a network with many NEs, and with each NE having numerous ports, manual configuration of this information ...