Synergy of Photonic Technologies and Software-Defined Networking in the Hyperconnectivity Era

Photonic technologies and software-defined networking (SDN) are key to supporting hyperconnectivity in a globally networked society. We present programmable optical transmission systems and particularly SDN-enabled transceiver architectures for addressing this challenge. Special attention is devoted to promising technologies able to reduce the cost, power consumption, and footprint of the optical subsystems and network elements. This is particularly relevant for future agile and high-capacity metro networks, identified to be the most challenging segment. Specifically, the adoption of high-dense photonic integration and long-wavelength vertical cavity surface emitting lasers is considered for the design of sliceable bandwidth/bitrate variable transceiver architectures supporting hyperconnectivity. Programmability and technological aspects are discussed, as well as recent results and achievements, focusing on opportunities and limitations provided by the proposed solutions. Starting from the identification of programmable parameters, the modeling of photonic transceivers is provided toward their automatic configurability by an SDN controller. An efficient use of available resources is promoted, while fully exploiting the photonic technology potentialities and exploring advanced functionalities that can be provided.