PFI:AIR - TT: Resilient and Programmable Metro Fiber System

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This PFI:AIR Technology Translation project focuses on translating optical networking control and switching technology invented in the NSF ERC Center for Integrated Access Networks (CIAN) to fill the need for fiber optical systems, the plumbing of the Internet, to be more flexibly reconfigured with changing service requirements. The resilient and programmable metro optical networking system is important because it can enable data traffic bottlenecks to be rapidly resolved and high bandwidth applications such as big data, telemedicine, and video to be flexibly moved to high capacity express-ways. For example, large volumes of data could be rapidly moved out of the path of natural disasters such as hurricanes. With this innovation, following a disaster, available live fiber connections can be flexibly managed to enable the highest available capacity and connectivity. This project will result in a proof-of-concept reconfigurable fiber system that has the unique capability to automatically switch the metro fiber connections between different metro, access, and data center optical transmission systems. These features provide a more efficient use of fiber infrastructure, more cost effective and reliable fiber capacity for high bandwidth services, and greater resilience to natural disasters. This project addresses several technology gaps as it translates from research discovery toward commercial application. This new reconfigurable fiber system will enable optical networks to be reconfigured to provide wavelength and fiber scale bandwidth on demand in metro networks. The main concept involves using space switching in metro network nodes or central offices to reconfigure the fiber connectivity across multiple communication platforms including reconfigurable optical add drop multiplexing (ROADM) and other access and distribution optical systems. Novel optical physical layer control algorithms and software defined networking (SDN) based protocols will be used to manage switching over optically amplified links on fast time scales. Additional optical elements or accelerators are introduced based on the switching requirements. In addition, graduate students and post-doctoral researchers involved in this project will receive technology transfer and entrepreneurship experiences through the proof-of-concept development and evaluation, and the business and use case development together with industry and government leaders. The project engages the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT), Silicon Harlem, and Calient Technologies in this technology translation effort from research discovery toward commercial reality.