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IEEE Network Magazine paper overviews the COSMOS optical infrastructure and experiments

Future converged optical-wireless front-/mid-/backhaul (x-haul) networks, where a reconfigurable optical network managed by an SDN controller can support a variety of C-RAN architectures. An example scenario is the WDM/PON C-RAN, where dynamic capacities can be provisioned and allocated to each link depending on the bandwidth and latency requirements.
A paper in IEEE Network Magazine Mar./Apr. 2022 issue outlines the COSMOS optical infrastructure  and optical experiments conducted on the COSMOS testbed.  
 
Particularly, the paper presents the design and implementation of the unique, remotely accessible, disaggregated, and programmable optical network as the key component of the testbed. It discusses the design and implementation of a dedicated multi-functional Ryu software-defined networking (SDN) controller for the testbed’s optical network wavelength channel assignment and topology reconfiguration. It presents an example use of the SDN controller for monitoring and automated measurement of the wavelength-dependent amplifier gain in deployed reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) units. It also demonstrates a pilot experiment focusing on a wireless handover scheme for C-RAN architectures in the COSMOS testbed, where high traffic volume can be supported by dynamic wavelength allocation via optical switching in the fronthaul. The field-deployed testbed and SDN controller can be used by the research community to push the envelope in the area of optical networks for beyond 5G and 6G. 
 

The paper is an outcome of a large-scale collaboration of researchers from Duke University , Trinity College Dublin, Paris Telecom, University of Chicago, with the COSMOS team. It appeared in the IEEE Network Magazine special issue on Next-Generation Optical Access Networks to Support Super-Broadband Services and 5G/6G Mobile Network.

More details can be found below:

  • T. Chen, J. Yu, A. Minakhmetov, C. Gutterman, M. Sherman, S. Zhu, S. Santaniello, A. Biswas, I. Seskar, G. Zussman, and D. Kilper, “A software-defined programmable testbed for beyond-5G optical-wireless experimentation at city-scale”, IEEE Network, Special Issue on Next-Generation Optical Access Networks to Support Super-Broadband Services and 5G/6G Mobile Networks, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 90-99, Mar./Apr. 2022. [download]