An Optical Layer Lightpath Management Protocol for WDM AONs

Abstract

In this work, we propose a control protocol for lightpath management in the optical layer of all-optical networks (AONs). AONs follow a layered structure, as used by various network standards, where each layer communicates with its peer through Protocol Data Units (PDUs). In the context of Open System Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model (RM), a new layer, called optical layer, has been introduced in the AON architecture to manage the lightpath related functions. The optical layer lies in between the physical layer and the data link layer. The objective of this paper is to define a specification for an optical layer protocol for managing lightpaths in AONs. In order to study the dynamics of the optical layer protocol system, we first employ the communicating finite state machine model to represent the protocol. Then a reachability analysis of the model is performed to verify the protocol. This paper shows how the optical layer protocol can be specified formally and made error-free by the step-wise refinement of an initial specification, where validation is done after each refinement.