SC216 - An Introduction to Optical Network Design and Planning
15 Mar 2026
13:30 - 17:30
Short Course Level
Beginner
Short Course Description
This course is an introduction to optical network design and planning for backbone, regional, and metro-core networks. A fundamental aspect of any optical network design is selecting the proper network equipment to maximize scalability and configurability, while minimizing cost. The course will discuss the role of network elements, especially ROADMs, and address the
benefits of equipment features such as colorless, directionless, contentionless, and gridless. Routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) play an important role in the efficiency of ROADM-based networks. The course will cover RWA principles, including a discussion of some of the most relevant algorithms. This includes topics such as routing for cloud-computing applications
and protection. The role of regeneration and optical reach in network design will be discussed. Modeling for real-time vs. long-term network planning will also be covered. The course will address current areas of research in optical networking, including: elastic optical networks (EONs), Software Defined Networking (SDN), open and disaggregated optical networks, low-margin optical networks, cognitive optical networks, and space division multiplexing (SDM).
Short Course Benefits
Benefits and Learning Objectives:
• Compare O-E-O and optical-bypass technology.
• Compare the architectures of various optical network elements.
• Describe the colorless, directionless, contentionless, and gridless attributes of ROADMs.
• Describe the basics of routing traffic, including strategies for load balancing and
protection.
• Describe the basics of wavelength assignment.
• Enumerate some of the networking principles as well as physical effects that determine
where regeneration is required in a network.
• Enumerate the advantages and disadvantages of elastic optical networks (EONs).
• Discuss the ‘hot’ topics in network architecture, including Software Defined Networking
(SDN), open optical networks, low-margin optical networks, cognitive optical networks,
and space division multiplexing (SDM).
Short Course Audience
This course is intended for network planners and architects in both carriers and system vendors who are involved in planning optical networks and selecting next-generation optical equipment. The discussion of networking elements and algorithms, as well as the discussion of current research areas, should be helpful to vendors who are developing optical systems and to carriers who are modeling network evolution strategies. The course is introductory level, although a basic understanding of networking principles is assumed.
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George Rouskas
North Carolina State University,
George N. Rouskas is Interim Head and an Alumni Distingusihed Professor with the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University. His research interests are in optical networks, network design and optimization, Internet architectures and protocols, and performance modeling. He received an undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and MS and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Georgia Tech. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and has served a 3-year term as Steering Committee Member of the OFC Conference. He was the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier
Optical Switching and Networking Journal (2004-17) and the Founding Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Networking Letters (2018-21). He is co-editor of the book Traffic Grooming in Optical Networks (Springer, 2008).