All-optical networks: Security issues analysis

All-optical networks (AONs) are emerging as a promising technology for future telecommunication and data networks. AONs provide huge transmission capacities and are mainly characterized by their transparency to the transmitted traffic. The characteristics of AONs are desirable in many respects, but they give rise to a new set of challenging issues in terms of network security that do not exist in traditional communication networks. The aim of this paper is to present a deep analysis of the security issues of AONs that distinguish them from traditional communication networks. In particular, we focus on the physical security aspect that differs significantly from that in electro-optic and electronic networks and that directly affects the physical infrastructure of AONs. The paper provides an analysis of the infrastructure vulnerabilities of AONs and shows how they can be exploited to perform attacks to the proper functioning of the network. Furthermore, it describes a set of scenarios that may be used to perform a service disruption or a tapping attack on an AON. Finally, it investigates the main challenging issues facing the efficient management of security attacks in AONs and presents a brief overview of the main proposed schemes for attack management in AONs.

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