Advanced optical networking — Lucent's MONET network elements

The Multiwavelength Optical NETworking (MONET) Consortium is a five-year program that has been under way since December 1994. Its overall goal has been to research and prototype wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networking technologies, network elements (NEs), and a network control and management system to support an advanced WDM optical networking testbed linking federal government agencies in the Washington, DC, area, including the National Security Agency (NSA), the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). A major accomplishment for Lucent Technologies under the program has been the development of a new class of WDM NEs and associated supporting technologies in sufficient prototype quantities to populate the experimental agency network in Washington. This article describes the new network elements that were developed by the MONET Consortium for this new experimental optical network.