Technologies and architectures to enable SDN in converged 5G/optical access networks

The challenging performance targets of future 5G networks will require a radical change in the network design with a much closer interaction between wireless and optical systems. Dynamically reconfigurable time-division multiplexing (TDM) dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) long-reach passive optical networks (PONs) provide a promising platform to enable the convergence of residential broadband, enterprise connectivity and wireless data traffic onto a single network architecture by exploiting the dynamic allocation of DWDM channels. In this paper we describe the architectural choices and the specific technologies that are required by these designs. We also demonstrate the co-existence of heterogeneous services and modulation formats, i.e. residential 10G PON channels, business 100G dedicated channel and wireless fronthaul on long reach TDM-DWDM PON systems. Two different TDM-DWDM PON designs are demonstrated: the first one for densely populated urban areas; and the second one better suited for rural deployment. Two service use cases are also demonstrated by implementing end-to-end software defined networking (SDN) management of the access and core network elements: a fast protection mechanism with end-to-end service restoration in the case of a primary link failure; and dynamic wavelength allocation (DWA) in response to an increased traffic demand.