Experimental demonstration of ASON-GMPLS signaling interworking in the NOBEL2 multi-domain multi-layer control plane emulator

Both the OIF and IETF inter-domain interfaces for control plane enabled networks are based on GMPLS protocols. OIF interfaces include ITU-T/ASON specic extensions, resulting in interoperability issues. Moreover, the connection services considered by the OIF are focused on SONET/SDH, OTN (i.e., G.709)and Ethernet, but do not consider lambda services for all-optical transport networks (i.e., without O/E/O conversion) as supported by GMPLS. Previous interoperability experiences are based on implementing an ASON-GMPLS gateway at the edge nodes in order to have the same inter-domain interface between domain edges. Regarding to the LSC switching, it is addressed introducing proprietary extension to OIF interfaces allowing to request Lambda services. This paper presents a protocol-unaware solution for enabling seamless interworking based on a centralized ASON-GMPLS proxy transparent for domain edges. Experimental demonstration has been performed in the integrated NOBEL2 Pan-European control plane emulator.