Proliferation of the optical transport network: a use case based study

The ITU-T G.709 standard is perhaps the most underrated and yet widely used of all telecommunication standards, especially pertaining to the transport layer. In this article we focus on OTN as a delivery platform for emerging services. We will understand why OTN was originally proposed and how it can be a critical enabler for emerging services. To this end, we build use cases of OTN especially for Ethernet transport, mobile backhaul, IP router interconnection, sub-wavelength support, and support of overlaid services, especially across multiple domains. The use cases will bring to the fore key advantages of OTN and how this technology solution is ideal for emerging applications. We also discuss future movements in this technology and how these can affect the transport network.