ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the automatic switched optical network (ASON) architecture, and reviews the generalized-multiprotocol label switch (GMPLS) protocol suite, and discusses how a multilayer network based on an integrated control plane can be designed and optimized. The ASON architecture states that the control plane is responsible for the actual resource and connection management within an automatically switched network (ASN). The ASN uses all the control planes to provision the connection and, when the connection is correctly provisioned, a return message is returned through the optical user network interface to the switch that starts the data transfer. Within the GMPLS architecture, different GMPLS models are defined to comply with different levels of GMPLS implementation and with gradual control plane introduction in the carrier networks. In the GMPLS original version, the network manager has only the role of defining the network when it is initialized and of reporting network events to the central network control room.
