ABSTRACT
The elastic optical network is a promising concept but its implementation remains some way off. This chapter addresses research issues and challenges faced by optical network researchers and shows that some directions for further research. Innovative and sophisticated devices and components must be developed in order to achieve high capacity spectrum efficient elastic optical networks. One of the important challenges faced by the research community is to develop a new sliceable bandwidth-variable transponder, which supports sliceability, multiple bit rates, multiple modulation formats, and code rate adaptability. Traditional optical networks use a set of protocols for network control and management. The increase in the traffic in carried by optical networks will increase the energy consumption. The elastic optical network has the ability to significantly reduce energy consumption. Recovery of the network resources after large scale disasters such as—tsunami, hurricanes and floods is becoming increasingly important.
