Extending the scope of OTN to access and metro networks

Network based on OTN standard (ITU-T G.709), originally devised for core networks, are foreseen to play an important role also in metro and possibly access optical networks, because of the always increasing bandwidth needs as well as of some new (at least numerically) requirements like latency and jitter control. In a historical timeframe in which the standardization activity is primarily focused on the extension of the hierarchy beyond 100 Gb/s, in this paper we quickly recap the basics of OTN, some more recent standard trends, and describe a couple of access and metro applications to which the technology can be easily adapted, both for evolving legacy services, which still exist, to new transmission platforms and for delivering new 5G oriented services.