• Forward Error correction (FEC)
• OSNR
• Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexers
• Application Based Network Operations(ABNO)

The increasing demand for ultra-high rate reliable connectivity is driving the
evolution of next generation optical networks. To support such evolution, effective
control, management and monitoring functionalities are required. On the
one hand, Software Defined Networking (SDN) is emerging as a key candidate
technology to enable effective control of optical networks, providing comprehensive
programming capabilities of transmission parameters and network devices.
On the other hand, management and monitoring are still based on traditional
solutions, not adequate to cope with the high level of programmability of SDN
networks. For example, existing management solutions typically retrieve optical
parameters from Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexers (ROADM) every
fifteen minutes. Such time interval is not adequate to rapidly detect and localize
minor impairments and transmission degradations (also called soft failures) or to
efficiently improve network resource utilization (e.g., through accurate control and
monitoring of system margin).
The goal of this thesis is to overcome the limitation of traditional management and monitoring solutions by dynamically retrieving accurate real-time monitoring
information of optical network devices. In particular, a monitoring entity enabling
the management of optical parameters has been designed, implemented and experimentally
validated. The monitoring entity consists in a software agent tool
capable of retrieving ROADM physical interface and module attributes, such as
optical power levels, coherent data, Optical Signal to Noise Ratio (OSNR), and
Forward Error Correction (FEC) information. The software agent tool has been
successfully interfaced with the main data plane devices, such as transponders
and amplifier, providing monitoring parameters to the SDN controller at configurable
time intervals.This has the potential to overcome the limitations of traditional monitoring systems,
supporting the introduction of advanced management and control functionalities.