Enabling Software Defined Optical Networks

Abstract: This paper gives an overview of Software Defined Optical Networks or SDONs and how they can be implemented. It traces the evolution of Optical networks upto GMPLS and traces the idea of SDN and builds upto OpenFlow. The paper explores the need for SDONs and explains what a SDON solution could look like, including the hardware. It also seeks to explain how OpenFlow could be used as a part of this solution to overcome the limitations of GMPLS.