| Optical networks have moved from laboratory settings and theoretical research to real-world deployment and service-oriented explorations. New technologies such as Ethernet PON and optical packet switching are being explored, and the landscape is continuously and rapidly evolving. Some of the key issues involving these new technologies are the architectural, protocol, and performance aspects.
The objective of this book is to present a collection of chapters from leading researchers in the field covering the above-mentioned aspects. Articles on various topics, spanning a variety of technologies, were solicited from active researchers in both academia and industry. In any book on such a quickly growing field, it is nearly impossible to do full justice to all of the important aspects. Here, rather than attempting to cover a large ground with a limited treatment of each topic, we focus on a few key challenges and present a set of papers addressing each of them in detail. It is our hope that the papers will be found to have sufficient detail for the new entrant to the field, and at the same time be a reference book for the experienced researcher.
This book is aimed at a wide variety of readers. The potential audience includes those who are interested in a summary of recent research work that cannot be found in a single location; those interested in survey and tutorial articles on specific topics; and graduate students and others who want to start research in optical networking. We hope that readers gain insight into the ideas behind the new technologies presented herein, and are inspired to conduct their own research and aid in further advancing the field. |