Guest Editorial Optical Networks - IEEE Xplore

JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 23, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2005

2803

Guest Editorial Optical Networks

O

PTICAL networks have rapidly evolved from lab demonstrations by researchers to viable enablers of today’s information infrastructures. The “explosive” traffic growth trend in the Internet has been continuing even during the recent economic downturn. Initially, this remarkable bandwidth growth was successfully met by the scalable point-to-point wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology that started its deployments in the latter half of the 1990s. This “first-generation optical networking” was largely fueled by the need for scalable capacity growths, driven by electronic switching and routing, and enabled by key technologies such as optical fiber amplifiers, optical multiplexers, and WDM-grade diode lasers. Today, we are seeing new deployment activities of the “secondgeneration optical networking” where high bandwidth capacity “lightpaths” or “wavelength circuits” are reconfigured by using reconfigurable optical add–drop multiplexers (ROADMs) or reconfigurable optical cross connects (ROXCs). In the foreseeable future, we may see much more agile optical layer reconfiguration switching and routing bursts or even packets directly at the optical layer so that the optical network element may eventually act like optical packet routers integrating data networking and optical networking (third-generation optical networking). As we envision networks continuing to evolve and offer enormous capacity, flexibility, and agility, we must seek innovations in enabling technologies, in systems technologies, and in network control, management, and planning. Looking through the past special issues, we realize that the considerable research efforts in the above three areas were first culminated in 1990 with the first Special Issue on Wavelength Division Multiplexing [ jointly under the JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY (JLT) and the IEEE JOURNAL ON S ELECTED A REAS IN C OMMUNICATIONS (JSAC)], and then followed by the Special Issue on Multiwavelength Optical Technology and Networks in 1996 (again jointly under JLT and JSAC). Since then, progress in optical networks exponentially accelerated to yield the 1998 Special Issue on Photonic Packet Switching Techniques, Technologies, and Systems; the 2000 Special Issue on Optical Networks; the 2003 Special Issue on Optical Networks; and the 2004 Special Issue on Metro and Access Networks. This 2005 Special Issue on Optical Networks has attracted a record of 106 submissions and contains 54 accepted papers including five invited papers covering state-of-the-art optical networking technologies. The invited papers carry forward the three areas of innovations previously mentioned. They discuss efficient fault diagnosis algorithms for locating link failures, transparent optical protection ring architectures and applica-

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JLT.2005.857859

tions, optical label switching technologies with optical carrier suppression, dynamic optical burst switching network architectures and systems demonstrations in support of grid services, and comprehensive photonic networking activities in Japan to establish a photonic platform. These invited manuscripts cover all-optical transport, photonic broadband access, optical burst/packet switching, and novel control and management schemes for high-performance optical networks. The contributed papers extend these themes and broadly address exciting innovations in enabling technologies, systems technologies, and network control, management, and planning. They include papers on reconfiguration, traffic grooming, protection, generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS), and Internet Protocol (IP)-over-WDM networks, optical multicast switching, optical label switching routers, optical packet switching systems demonstrations, optical network testbeds, optical code division multiple access (O-CDMA), wavelength conversion, parametric amplification, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switches, and high-density optical multiplexers. It is obvious from this issue that the innovations in lightwave technology research and development have been continuing at an accelerating pace despite the recent “telecom winter” and that the innovations have been addressing all three areas: networking, systems integration, and enabling technologies. This Special Issue was made possible by dedicated efforts of a number of people. First, we would like to thank the authors of all the papers in this issue and many reviewers who, despite their many other commitments, provided high-quality reviews of the manuscripts. We would like to thank the IEEE publications staff for their general support, and Douglas Hargis, Publications Coordinator, in particular for his prompt help, boundless energy, and excellent organization skills in helping us meet the deadline. We would like to thank Prof. Alan E. Willner, Editorin-Chief of the JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, for his stimulating encouragements for this special issue.

EYTAN MODIANO, Guest Editor Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 02239 USA IOANNIS TOMKOS, Guest Editor Athens Information Technology Center Peania, Athens, Greece SHIZHONG XIE, Guest Editor Department of Electronics Engineering Tsinghua University Beijing, 100084 China

0733-8724/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE

2804


S. J. BEN YOO, Guest Editor Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Davis Branch CITRIS University of California Davis, CA 95616 USA CHUNG - EN ZAH, Guest Editor Semiconductor Technologies Research, Science and Technology Corning Inc. Corning, NY 14831 USA Eytan Modiano received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Connecticut at Storrs in 1986 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1989 and 1992, respectively. Between 1993 and 1999, he was a Project Leader for MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s NextGeneration Internet (NGI) project. Since 1999, he has been an Associate Professor at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) at MIT. His research is on communication networks and protocols with emphasis on satellite, wireless, and optical networks. Dr. Modiano was a Naval Research Laboratory Fellow between 1987 and 1992 and a National Research Council Post Doctoral Fellow from 1992 to 1993. He is currently an Associate Editor for Communication Networks for IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY and for The International Journal of Satellite Communications. He has served as a Guest Editor for the IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS (JSAC) Special Issue on WDM Network Architectures; the Computer Networks Journal Special Issue on Broadband Internet Access; and the Journal of Communications and Networks Special Issue on Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks. He is the Technical Program Co-Chair for Wiopt 2006 and Infocom 2007.

Ioannis Tomkos received the B.Sc. degree from the University of Patras, Greece, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Athens, Greece. In 1996, he joined the Optical Communications Group of the University of Athens, where he participated in several national and European research projects. In January 2000, he joined as a Senior Research Scientist the Photonics Research and Test Center of Corning, Inc., where he engaged in pioneering work related with design and performance engineering of transparent optical networks. He joined Athens Information Technology (AIT) in July 2002, and he is now a Professor and Head of the High Speed Networks and Optical Communications Research Group as well as Adjunct Faculty at the Information Networking Institute of Carnegie-Mellon University, PA. He is the Associate Dean of the AIT Center. He has coauthored about 40 articles published in international scientific journals/magazines/books and about 100 presentations at conferences/workshops and other events. He has received several invitations from conference technical program committees to present his research results. He holds two patents and has several patent applications pending. Dr. Tomkos is the Vice-Chair of the International Optical Networking Technical Committee of the IEEE Communications Society. He is the Co-Chair for the Optical Networking Symposium of IEEE GLOBECOM 2005 and also served for a number of years as a Member of the Technical Program Committees for major conferences (e.g., OFC, ECOC, IEEE GLOBECOM, IEEE ICC, etc.) in the area of optical telecommunications/networking (more than 20 conferences). He is the IEEE ComSoc Representative in the IEEE Nanotechnology Council and the elected Chairman of the EU COST 291 project entitled Towards Digital Optical Networks. He is also an invited expert Evaluator for European research projects and a Reviewer for major scientific journals. He received educational scholarships from the Hellenic Institute of National Scholarships in 1991, 1992, and 1993. In 1998, he received a grant and also the “Best Paper” Award from IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS). In 1999, he received a scholarship from The International Society for Optical Engineers (SPIE). In 2000, he was awarded by Corning, Inc., for his contributions in the development of a new optical fiber. In 2002, he received the “Corning Research Outstanding Publication Award.”


2805

Shizhong Xie (M’94–SM’98) graduated in 1970 and received the M.S. degree in electronic engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 1981. From 1987 to 1988, he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. In 1989, he was a Senior Visitor at the Royal Society British Telecom Fellowship, University College London, U.K. From 1970 to 1978 and from 1981 to the present, he has been with the faculty of the Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, where he is now a Full Professor and the Director of Optical Communication Research Institute. His interests include dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical fiber communications, broadband optical networks, optical packet switching, ultraviolet (UV)-induced fiber Bragg gratings, holey fibers, and their application in optical fiber communications. He has led or participated in many major government programs in the area of optical network including the China Advance INfo-Optical Network (CAINONET), National Science Foundation of China Network (NSFCNET), and National High-Performance Broadband Information Network (3T’NET), and served as a member of the expert groups steering those programs. Prof. Xie is a Senior Member of IEEE/Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS), the Chinese Institute of Electronics, and the Chinese Optical Society.

S. J. Ben Yoo (S’82–M’84–SM’97) received the B.S. degree (with distinction) in electrical engineering, the M.S. degree in electrical engineering, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering with a minor in physics, all from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, in 1984, 1986, and 1991, respectively. He currently serves as Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of California at Davis (UC Davis) and Director of the UC Davis Branch Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS). His research at UC Davis includes high-performance all-optical devices, systems, and networking technologies for the next-generation Internet. In particular, he is conducting research on architectures, systems integration, and network experiments related to all-optical label switching routers and optical code division multiple access technologies. Prior to joining UC Davis in 1999, he was a Senior Research Scientist at Bell Communications Research (Bellcore), leading technical efforts in optical networking research and systems integration. His research activities at Bellcore included optical label switching for the next-generation Internet, power transients in reconfigurable optical networks, wavelength interchanging cross connects, wavelength converters, vertical-cavity lasers, and high-speed modulators. He also participated in the advanced technology demonstration network/multiwavelength optical networking (ATD/MONET) systems integration, the OC-192 synchronous optical network (SONET) ring studies, and a number of standardization activities that led to documentations of Generic Requirements, GR-2918-CORE (1999), GR-2918-ILR (1999), GR-1377-CORE (1995), and GR-1377-ILR (1995) on dense wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and OC-192 systems. Prior to joining Bellcore in 1991, he conducted research at Stanford University on nonlinear optical processes in quantum wells, a four-wave-mixing study of relaxation mechanisms in dye molecules, and ultrafast diffusion-driven photodetectors. During this period, he also conducted research on lifetime measurements of intersubband transitions and on nonlinear optical storage mechanisms at Bell Laboratories and IBM Research Laboratories, respectively. Prof. Yoo is a Senior Member of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS) and a Member of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and Tau Beta Pi. He is a recipient of the DARPA Award for Sustained Excellence in 1997, the Bellcore CEO Award in 1998, and the Mid-Career Research Faculty Award (UC Davis) in 2004. He has served as Co-Chair of Technical Program Committee for APOC 2004 and APOC 2003, and Technical Program Committee Member for CLEO’2005, CLEO’2004, CLEO’2003, LEOS’2000, LEOS’1999, LEOS’1998, OECC/COIN’2004, COIN’2003, COIN’2002, NLGA’2000, and OAA’2005. He also serves as Associate Editor for IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS.

2806


Chung-en Zah (S’83–M’85–SM’91–F’97) was born in Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1955. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the National Taiwan University, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1977 and 1979, respectively, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, in 1982 and 1986, respectively. His thesis research was in the area of millimeter-wave integrated circuits. He joined Bell Communications Research (Bellcore), Red Bank, NJ, as a Member of the Technical Staff in 1985 and was promoted to Senior Scientist in January 1995 and to Director of Optoelectronic Integration Research in April 1995. His group effort was to achieve optoelectronics integration vertically by material growth and laterally by integrated optics design and fabrication in support of optical networking projects and deliverables. His work has been in optoelectronic device research for optical fiber communication systems including semiconductor lasers and optical amplifiers. He has led a team to design, fabricate, and characterize uncooled lasers, high-speed lasers, distributed-feedback lasers, wavelength tunable distributed Bragg reflector lasers, and multiwavelength distributed-feedback laser arrays. He has also participated in several system demonstrations using his lasers and optical amplifiers, such as the subcarrier-multiplexed system, the coherent system, the wavelength-divisionmultiplexed system, and the Optical Network Technology Consortium (ONTC) testbed. From 1993 to 1995, he successfully led a team to develop four-wavelength and eight-wavelength distributed feedback (DFB) laser array prototypes for the Optical Networking Technical Committee (ONTC) reconfigurable multiwavelength optical network testbed funded by the Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA). In 1996, he was responsible for developing the eight-wavelength modulator-integrated DFB laser array prototypes for the local exchange testbed in the Multiwavelength Optical Networking Consortium (MONET) also funded by ARPA. Since August 1, 1997, his group has been acquired by Corning, Inc., New York. He is currently a Research Director of Semiconductor Technologies Research at Corning, Inc. His current interest and effort are in strained-layer quantum well lasers and optical amplifiers, vertical surface emitting lasers, and photonic integrated circuits. His department has participated in commercializing state-of-the-art high-power 980- and 14xx-nm pumps. He has authored and/or coauthored more than 100 (seven invited) journal papers and 140 (26 invited) conference papers, and holds 14 U.S. patents in the areas of optoelectronic devices and optical fiber communications. Dr. Zah is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and a Member of the Phi Tau Phi Scholastic Honor Society and the Photonics Society of Chinese-Americans. He has served as a Member of the technical committees for IEDM’90, IEDM’91, LEOS’90, LEOS’91, LEOS’96, LEOS’97; 1996, 1998, and 2000 IEEE International Semiconductor Laser Conference; 2001, 2002, and 2003 APOC; 1991 and 1992 topical meeting on optical amplifiers and their applications; 1994 NSF Lightwave Technology panel; IPR’94, IPR’95, IPR’96, CLEO’95, OFC’98, and ECOC’2003. He has also been a Co-Chair of CLEO-PR’97 semiconductor laser subcommittee, Chair of OFC’99 Optoelectronic and Integrated Optics and Components subcommittee, a Program Chair of LEOS’2001, a Member at large of LEOS’2002, Conference Chair of LEOS’2003, Co-Chair of APOC’2004 Semiconductor and Organic Optoelectronic Materials and Devices subcommittee, a General Technical Co-Chair of APOC’2005, a Session Chair of 9th and 12th IEEE/LEOS Semiconductor Laser Workshops on WDM light sources and tunable lasers, and Photonic Integrated Circuits for WDM Applications, respectively, in 1992 and 1995, a Symposium Organizer of 1994 OSA Annual Meeting on array devices for WDM network, and an Associate Editor of IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS since 1993. He received the Bellcore Distinguished Member of Technical Staff Award in 1992 for his innovative contributions to the applications of lightwave technology to advanced fiber networks, the R&D 100 award in 1994, and LEOS Engineering Achievement Award in 2005 for his uncooled AlGaInAs lasers designed for fiber-in-the-loop applications, and another R&D 100 award in 1996 for WDM network access modules incorporating his multiwavelength DFB laser arrays.