INTENT AND CONTEXT-AWARE OPTICAL NETWORKS

The overarching aim of this project is to create a pathway for fibre sensing to become an integral service in optical transmission systems, both for improving the reliability and performance of the network itself as well as enabling new functionality and sensing based services. The result will be an Intent and Context-aware Optical Network (ICON) - a new optical network built and operated using the joint communication and sensing concept (JCS). In general, fibre sensing is undergoing a resurgence of interest due to the potential of integrating it into the communication infrastructure and leveraging this infrastructure to achieve scale and widespread applicability, a trend that is occurring in both wireless and wired/fibre systems. Through this approach, the backbone fibre networks can be turned into a massive sensor for detecting earthquakes, tsunamis and a host of geographic disturbances , . On a metro scale, networks have also been shown to detect the flow of road traffic and transport systems using both the coherent communication signals themselves and a variety of sensing probes. These methods are largely compatible with high data rate communication dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) networks . While promising, these early experiments remain proof of concept tests, in which the sensing technologies are a bolted-on novelty. In order to exploit these new sensing service opportunities, progress is needed in terms of the sensor sensitivity and performance, allowing them to find wide applicability over a range of optical transmission system configurations and deployment scenarios. Additionally, control and management of sensing signals will need to be compatible with optical network control and management systems, including emerging virtualized functions and software defined network controls.