Flexible-sense optical transmission

We present a platform for the optical interconnection of traffic nodes where the sense of transmission is exploited as an additional degree of flexibility. Implementation of the optical arrangement is shown. The requirements about the negotiation of the available resources, such as fibers and wavelengths, are discussed. We evaluate the implications of flexible-sense transmission in terms of cost, power and reach, under realistic assumptions of traffic peak-to-average bandwidth ratio and degree of asymmetry.