An Experimental ASON Based on OADM Rings and a GMPLS Control Plane

This paper presents the architecture of an ASON testbed implemented in the EMPIRICO project, focusing on design and implementation issues of real-time provisioning of bidirectional optical connections supported by a distributed GMPLS-based control plane and triggered by the Network Management System. Experimental performance is evaluated over a unidirectional and a bidirectional all-optical OADM ring in which neither wavelength converters nor optical resources discovery are employed. Performance analysis evaluates the blocking probability and the connection setup time.