SDN-Enabled Multi-Band S-BVT Within Disaggregated Optical Networks

Multi-band (MB) technology arises as a suitable solution to increase capacity within future 6G networks, while efficiently utilizing the already deployed optical fiber infrastructure. Indeed, the adoption of MB sliceable bandwidth/bit rate variable transceivers (S-BVTs) based on multi carrier modulation (MCM) enables transmission within multiple bands beyond C-band, providing sustainable capacity growth and hyper-scalability. Different slices/bands can be suitably activated in a pay-as-you grow approach according to the network demand and requirements. Additionally, the proposed MB S-BVT architecture also enables disaggregation and programmability by the adoption of an open software-defined networking (SDN) paradigm. A proof of concept of the proposed MB S-BVT is numerically and experimentally evaluated. Specifically, the transmission of 25 GHz signals/slices working at C-, L- and S-band is considered without any filtering and amplification stages. About 70 Gb/s capacity per slice/band is achieved in B2B configuration. The data rate decreases after 50.47 km, enabling maximum capacities per slice of 26.2 Gb/s (C-band) and 21 Gb/s (L- and S-bands). Additionally, the proposed MB S-BVT can be envisioned to serve different classes of services/applications over different network segments, prepared to support MB technology, thanks to the exploitation of differently performing slices/bands.