Experimental investigation of dynamic impairment-aware bi-directional lightpath provisioning in GMPLS-enabled optical networks

The lightpaths within a wavelength switched optical network (WSON) are usually bi-directional, with a same route and a same wavelength which are allocated for both directions from the viewpoint of optical network operation. On the other hand, the introduction of generalized multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS) as a network control plane is expected to bring more intelligence and to provision the end-to-end lightpath in a cost-efficient manner. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate and evaluate dynamic provisioning of bi-directional lightpaths in GMPLS controlled optical networks, considering the wavelength continuity constraint and the physical impairment constraint on both directions.