Field Trial of Alien Wavelengths on GARR Optical Network

At the Italian national level, GARR optical network is composed of two separate optical network domains. With the aim to integrate them we decided to use the alien wavelength technique. This is a hybrid solution based on the transmission and reception of optical signals, called alien wavelengths, that are transported on an infrastructure that is different from the one that generated them. We tested the technique first on a field trial, on two portions of our network of about 350 and 1200km long in order to measure the achievable performance. Based on the successful results we then implemented such technique on the production environment on about 3000km to deliver high-performance services. In this way we improved the overall efficiency of the Italian research and education network in a cost-effective way. This paper describes the overall activity, results and our experience in integrating the alien wavelengths in a production environment, with a special emphasis on deployment and operational issues.