Telecommunications Essentials

Managing Optical Networks

Optical networks have a number of unique management requirements that necessitate new techniques. There are currently no standards for carrying management information in optical networks, so carriers may be forced to retain electrical interfaces so that they can pinpoint faults. There is also currently no way to support error-correcting protocols on optical networks. Carriers still also need electrical interfaces to regenerate the right color light; because there is currently no standard for connecting one shade of blue light to another shade of blue light, for example, carriers must rely on a complete package of transmission equipment and switching from the same vendor.

Adding more wavelengths presents service providers ...