Optical networking application in various tier networks

Summary form only given. DWDM technology has emerged as the leading solution for high-speed transmission to dramatically change the underlying characteristics of backbone networks. While DWDM has already proven its worth in long-haul networks, its role in metropolitan area networks and access networks is just beginning to take shape. The application of optical networking is very different in various tier networks and we discuss the issues involved. We introduce the concept, topology and architecture for metro and access networks. In addition, we also focus on the value proposition for metro and access optical networking. Finally, we examine the key requirements of the service providers and discuss the main components needed to deploy such a bit-rate, format and protocol transparent network.