One document matched: draft-martinelli-ccamp-opt-imp-fwk-00.txt




Internet Engineering Task Force                       G. Martinelli, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                           D. Bianchi, Ed.
Intended status: Informational                             A. Tanzi, Ed.
Expires: April 29, 2009                                  O. Gerstel, Ed.
                                                           Cisco Systems
                                                         A. Zanardi, Ed.
                                                              CREATE-NET
                                                        October 26, 2008


A Framework for defining Optical Parameters to be used in WSON networks
                             through GMPLS
                 draft-martinelli-ccamp-opt-imp-fwk-00

Status of this Memo

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 29, 2009.

Abstract

   In the context of Wavelength Switched Optical Networks (WSON) the
   problem of selecting a lightpath might be constrained by an
   evaluation of the optical impairments associated to a wavelength.
   This is a critical step in a transparent dense wavelength division
   multiplexing (DWDM) optical islands where a lightpath feasibility has
   to be assessed between two regenerations nodes.




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   This memo provides a framework in which optical parameters can be
   considered a control plane.  The document relies on information
   already present in ITU documents and summarize in term of lightpath
   constraints.


Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Motivation for an Impairment-Aware Control Plane . . . . . . .  3
   3.  Overview of Optical Impairment Evaluation  . . . . . . . . . .  5
     3.1.  Impairments Evaluation Flow  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     3.2.  Parameter Classification According to its Information
           Complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.3.  Additional Parameter Sharing Properties  . . . . . . . . .  9
   4.  Control Plane Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   5.  Optical Interface Characteristics  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   6.  Optical Path Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     6.1.  Linear Impairments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       6.1.1.  Fiber Losses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       6.1.2.  Insertion Losses (Optical components looses) . . . . . 12
       6.1.3.  Amplifier Spontaneous Emission (ASE) . . . . . . . . . 12
       6.1.4.  Crosstalk  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       6.1.5.  Fiber Chromatic Dispersion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       6.1.6.  Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD) . . . . . . . . . . 14
       6.1.7.  Polarization Dependent Loss (PDL)  . . . . . . . . . . 14
     6.2.  Fiber Optical Non-Linearities  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   7.  Optical Channel Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     7.1.  Optical Power  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     7.2.  Optical Signal to Noise Ratio  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     7.3.  Residual Chromatic Dispersion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     7.4.  Residual Differtial Group Delay (DGD)  . . . . . . . . . . 16
     7.5.  Q-Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   8.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   9.  Contributing Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   10. IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   11. Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   12. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     12.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     12.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
   Appendix A.  ITU Parameters Missing Information  . . . . . . . . . 21
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
   Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 23








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1.  Introduction

   Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS), [RFC3945],
   applied to wavelength switched optical networks (WSON) needs to
   address specific issues related to optical technologies.  The
   framework document
   [I-D.draft-ietf-ccamp-wavelength-switched-framework] address specific
   issues related to transparent optical networks and to the routing and
   wavelength assignment (RWA) problem.  Optical impairments, however,
   are out of the scope of that document.

   One of the key aspects while dealing with transparent DWDM optical
   networks are the physical impairments incurred by non-ideal optical
   transmission media, and how they accumulate along an optical path.
   Because of these impairments, even if there is physical connectivity
   (fibers, wavelengths, and nodes) between the ingress and egress
   nodes, there is no guarantee that the optical signal (light) reaches
   the Egress node with acceptable signal quality in terms of Bit Error
   Rate (BER) or other quality measures (e.g.  Q-factor).

   Scope of this framework document is to provide an overview of optical
   impairments and parameters that have to be considered to assess the
   feasibility of an optical path (lightpath) and provide any useful
   information for an impairment-aware protocol implementation.  For
   this purpose a classification and properties of optical impairment
   are provided along with some considerations related to control plane.

   The detailed definitions of the physical effects with related
   mathematical models are, in general, already defined within ITU-T and
   this documents will refer to ITU-T documentation whenever is
   possible.  This document will only report additional information to
   determine how this information must be integrated into the control
   plane.

   The document [RFC4054] is another reference targeting optical network
   routing along with impairments and constrains.  The goal there was to
   provide a survey of all optical constrains along with possible
   approaches.  In this contribution the scope is much more limited, as
   we only list optical impairments and their salient properties with
   respect to control plane implementation.


2.  Motivation for an Impairment-Aware Control Plane

   GMPLS today is not aware of optical impairments in the DWDM network.
   This implies that it cannot determine whether an end to end optical
   path is feasible or not.  While there has been much work on adding
   wavelength constraints and other simple parameters to the control



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   plane ([I-D.draft-ietf-ccamp-rwa-info] and
   [I-D.bernstein-ccamp-wson-signaling]), this information alone does
   not help determine the feasibility of the path.  In fact, the more
   impairments are taken into account, the more aggressive the network
   can be in terms to reach, and the lower the cost of the solution,
   since less regenerators are needed.  Conversely, if a limited number
   of optical impairments is taken into account, the network must allow
   for larger margins to account for uncertainty in the missing
   parameters, and will have to regenerate more frequently.

   One question that arises is: why add such information into the
   control plane and not deal with it through planning tools that today
   are in charge of optical feasibility determination?  The reasons for
   this are multi-fold:

   1.  Issues with offline planning tools.
       Planning tools are typically off line tools and do not have
       accurate information as to the real impairments in the network.
       This adds uncertainty and requires higher margins, resulting in
       more regeneration and a higher cost solution.  This problem is
       exacerbated with higher bit rates (40G+) when more accurate
       feasibility analysis may be needed due the higher transmission
       challenges.  Moreover, if no feasible optical path exists between
       the endpoints, planning tools cannot identify the currently
       available regenerators if they do not have real time data from
       the network, and therefore require multiple tools (e.g., also an
       EMS) to be reconciled manually to determine the final path.

   2.  Issues with online planning tools.
       To address the above issues, the planning tool must be constantly
       online, however this represents another point of failure in the
       network and requires extra overhead, e.g., for backing it up.
       This is not desirable for many operators.  So can the planning
       tool be integrated into the EMS, to reduce the overhead for a
       standalone tool?  In certain cases it can, but many operators may
       prefer using a higher level generic management tool, which is not
       provided by the DWDM layer vendor.

   3.  Issues with pre-determining all feasible paths a-priori.
       While the above approaches assume on-demand computation of a
       feasible path, a different way to tackle the problem is to pre-
       define a small number of feasible paths between all required end-
       points a-priori.  In this case, all the control plane needs to do
       is select one of the feasible paths and set up a connection.
       This approach will work in small networks, but the number of
       feasible paths that need to be maintained in a large network may
       be prohibitive as it requires O(N^2) paths.  Another issue with
       this approach is that it reduces the flexibility of choosing a



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       path as not all feasible paths can be defined a-priori (otherwise
       the number of paths becomes exponential).  This will create
       artificial blocking, when an alternate non-blocking path may
       exist.  An even worse problem is that when the optical layer
       evolves (e.g., a fiber added), all paths have to be re-computed
       which makes this set of paths operationally very hard to
       maintain.

   In summary, while there are ways to provide a control plane for an
   optical network that is not aware of impairments, such a solution has
   various limitations that imply either high capital cost or high
   operational cost neither of which are acceptable in many SP networks
   that are under pressure to optimize both CAPEX and OPEX.


3.  Overview of Optical Impairment Evaluation

3.1.  Impairments Evaluation Flow

   The aim of this section is to provide an overview of a typical
   decision flow for the evaluation of the feasibility of an optical
   path.  The feasibility is evaluated given the transmitter and
   receiver characteristics, the characteristics of intermediate nodes,
   and the optical impairments along the path from the lightpath source
   to its destination.


            +--------+           +--------+           +--------+
            |        |           |        |           |        |
            |  Node  #-----------|  Node  |-----------#  Node  |
            |        |    Link   |        |   Link    |        |
            +--------+           +--------+           +--------+

                    TX                               RX
                 Interface                       Interface

                                 Figure 1

   Figure 1 represents DWDM transparent network can be represented by
   nodes, links and interfaces.

   o  Node.  It's an optical network element providing wavelength
      switching and multiplexing functionality.  The WSON framework
      document [I-D.draft-ietf-ccamp-wavelength-switched-framework]
      completely describes different node types with their
      peculiarities.  An optical node can perturb a lightpath quality by
      adding impairments due to its internal components.  A node may
      also change the value of some parameters like the optical power.



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   o  Link.  The fiber is the physical medium of a lightpath and it adds
      impairments to the optical signals.  In general it causes a
      degradation in the signal quality.

   o  Interface.  Optical Interfaces contains both a transmitter (TX-
      Interface) and a receiver (RX-Interface).  Depending on its
      function different parameters must be considered.

   The measurement of a BER or a Q-Factor completely describes the
   quality of an optical signal.  However in transparent optical
   networks there is no direct measurement of such information.  Very
   often the only way is to provide measurement of other parameter's
   (i.e. impairments) and provide an estimation of the signal quality.

   Following Figure 1 the signal get generated at the TX-Interface with
   certain characteristics.  Let's consider, for purposes of
   illustration, only a couple of simple parameters: the power of the
   signal and the signal to noise ratio (OSNR).  Along the lightpath,
   the signal goes though fiber which reduces its power and introduces
   impairments that can be viewed as additional noise added by the fiber
   characteristics.  Traversing an optical node the signal might be
   amplified so it recover in term of power but this might cause
   additional noise to the signal.  Optical components (e.g. switches)
   within the node are themselves source of additional noise for the
   signal.  When the signal reaches the RX-Interface at the destination
   it must have sufficient power and sufficient OSNR to be used by the
   interface.  The acceptable level of the OSNR at the destination as
   well as the minimum acceptable power might depend on the
   characteristics of the receiver interface.

   The next Figure 2 provides the functional overview of such evaluation
   process.



















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    +-----------------+        +-----------------+        +------------+
    |                 |        |                 |        |            |
    | Optical         |        | Optical         |        | Optical    |
    | Interface       |------->| Path            |------->| Channel    |
    | Characteristics |        | Characteristics |        | Estimation |
    |                 |        |                 |        |            |
    +-----------------+        +-----------------+        +------------+
                                                              ||
                                                              ||
                                                           Estimation
                                                              ||
                                                              \/
                                                         +------------+
                                                         |  BER /     |
                                                         |  Q Factor  |
                                                         +------------+


                                 Figure 2

   Starting from the left the Optical Interface Characteristics
   represents where the optical signal is transmitted or received and
   represent the properties at the end points of a lightpath.  In
   principle a path computation with no impairments (RWA only) might use
   only a minimum set of these parameters to assess the interface
   compatibility.  If impairments are considered additional parameters
   become interesting.  Section 5 details the parameters related to the
   interfaces.

   Within the block Optical Path Characteristics we represents all kind
   of impairments affecting a lightpath while it traverse the networks
   through links and nodes.  Section 6 reports a list of of such
   effects.

   When reaching the destination node, an impairment-aware constrained
   path computation must take a decision if the lightpath is feasible or
   not.  We call this operation Optical Channel Estimation because the
   real signal quality must be estimated given the impairments along the
   path.  Section 7 reports a set of parameters that can be used to
   asses such signal quality.

3.2.  Parameter Classification According to its Information Complexity

   As discussed in the previous section, the process of determining the
   feasibility of an optical path includes constraints, impairments and
   other data that relates to the transmitter (such as modulation
   format, optical power, supported wavelengths etc.), data that relates
   to the optical nodes along the path (loss, gain etc.), information



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   that relates to the fiber links between the nodes (fiber loss,
   dispersion etc), information that relates to other paths that
   interact with the new path, and finally the capabilities of the
   receiver (power sensitivity, error correction etc.).

   However, not all the data must be shared over the control plane as
   is.  We distinguish between the following cases:

   o  Some attributes can be kept local to the node.  For example,
      receiver attributes may be kept at the end node, if this node will
      make the decision on path feasibility.  We call these attributes
      LOCAL in this document.

   o  Other attributes can be shared in a summarized form since the
      impairment can be accumulated hop by hop.  For example optical
      power can be added or reduced starting from the power at the
      transmitter as the signaling message traverses various gain or
      loss elements along the path.  These attributes are termed SCALAR
      herein

   o  Some attributes need to be calculated based on all the values of
      the specific attribute for all the hops along the path.  Such
      values cannot be summarized and need to accumulate in a vector
      reflecting all the hops along the path.  These attributes are
      termed MULTI-HOP herein (these attributes are called non-linear in
      the optical jargon)

   o  Some values are impacted not just by the new path under
      consideration but also by other channels that interact with it
      along its route.  The most obvious example for such an attribute
      is wavelength: the available wavelength is a function of other
      channels at nodes and links along the path.  These attributes are
      termed MULTI-CHANNEL herein.

   o  Finally, some attributes can be computed accurately only if values
      are known for every channel and every hop along the path.  These
      attributes are termed MULTI-HOP-CHANNEL herein.

   The main contribution of this document is the classification of the
   various attributes along these cases (LOCAL, SCALAR, MULTI-HOP,
   MULTI-CHANNEL and MULTI-HOP-CHANNEL).  We believe that this
   information is crucial in order to determine the control plane
   mechanism needed to carry each attribute.  To illustrate this let's
   assume a particular attribute must be carried in the path signaling
   message.  The attribute will accumulate as follows for the different
   attribute classes.





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   o  LOCAL attributes will not be carried in the message

   o  SCALAR attributes will be carried via a single field, with agreed
      upon rules on how to compute the next value based on the value
      from the incoming message and the value for the next node and/or
      link

   o  MULTI-HOP attributes must be carried in a vector that fills up in
      serial fashion from hop to hop, in which the value for the n-th
      hop is carried in v[n]

   o  MULTI-CHANNEL attributes must be carried in a vector that contains
      one value per channel and in which all values are updated in
      parallel at every hop (a good example for this is the wavelength
      bitmap defined in [ref TBD], in which one bit represents the
      summarized information on the availability of a specific
      wavelength along the path), and

   o  MULTI-HOP-CHANNEL attributes requires a matrix m[h,w] with h rows
      (one per hop) and w columns (one per wavelength), in which row
      m[n,*] represents the values for all channels for the n-th hops
      along the path

3.3.   Additional Parameter Sharing Properties

   For the usage in a control plane, other properties for each parameter
   should also be considered.  The association between each parameter
   and a set of its inherent properties is defined within ITU documents.
   For a control plane usage however the following value of each
   property should help in deciding the most appropriate protocol to
   convey the parameter within he control plane.

   o  Time Dependency.
      If a parameter is static then we assume it does not change during
      the life of the network.  In case there is a time dependency a
      minimum refresh rate shall be provided.  This may help determine,
      for example whether the parameter should be considered once during
      connection setup, or whether the properties should be refreshed
      (e.g. via an IGP or signaling).

   o  Wavelength Dependency.
      A parameter can be wavelength dependent if, for each wavelenght it
      might have different value.  On the contrary a parameter might
      have a single value for all the wavelengths.

   o  Value type (real, discrete, etc.).
      This kind of information should help in encoding the information
      within the protocol.  Because some of the parameters represent



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      physical quantities discrete values might be used within certain
      approximations, in other cases real (e.g.  IEEE 754 standard)
      might be required.

   o  Does the variance of the parameter need to be specified with it
      (so an error may be computed along with it)?


4.  Control Plane Considerations

   [Editorial Note: This section has to be filled up.  Current text only
   as initial placeholder].

   The use of optical impairments as path constrains would imply the
   control plane (GMPLS) to be aware of some additional information
   coming from the optical layer.  The control plane shall be able to
   convey the proper information for an to allow the optical path
   feasibility calculation.

   o  Routing.
      Routing extensions to support GMPLS are defined in [RFC4202].
      Needs additional information to defines routing metrics with a
      certain level of optical-impairment awareness.

   o  Signaling.
      Optical constrains can be verified along the signaling phase.
      Different options might be foreseen:

      *  Full optical impairment verification.  If the routing phase has
         no awareness of any optical impairments, the signaling phase
         can verify all of them.

      *  Partial optical impairment verification.  It might be possible
         that a certain set of optical impairment are verified during
         the routing phase while the remaining set can be performed
         during the signaling phase.

   o  PCE Architecture [RFC4655].
      In case a PCE is used to support path computation, an additional
      solution might foresee a PCE capable of supporting an impairment-
      aware path computation.  Need to evaluate the information to
      convey to the PCE for such computation.


5.  Optical Interface Characteristics

   Placeholder for details optical parameters that specifically refer to
   the physical interface.  Their knowledge is necessary to evaluate the



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   path feasibility in term of optical impairments.

   They can be classified for what related to transmitter (e.g. bit
   rate, modulation format, FEC etc.) and receiver (e.g. stability, CD
   robustness) interface.  The document [ITU.G698.2] provide a detailed
   list of parameteres with their values.


6.  Optical Path Characteristics

   This section describes the optical impairments associated to the path
   optical elements defined in Section 3.  For each impairment, the
   following information is provided:

   o  A minimum impairment description with a reference to the related
      ITU-T document where available.

   o  the impairment classification and properties as defined within
      Section 3.2 and Section 3.3.

   o  the impairment evaluation/handling techniques.

   o  the impairment impact on the channel quality estimation as defined
      by parameters in Section 3.3.

6.1.  Linear Impairments

6.1.1.  Fiber Losses

   It's the optical power loss caused by a fiber span [ITU-T ref ?].
   It's measured as the ratio (dB) between the input and the output
   optical power.

   The loss introduced by each fiber span depends on:

   o  fiber attenuation coefficient (dB/Km)

   o  fiber length (Km).  Note that this value is one of the link
      characteristics defined in [RFC4209] (section 2.3.5).

   The fiber losses directly affect the signal optical power at the
   receiver interface: losses are accumulated along the path and
   compensated by Optical Amplifiers.

   The fiber loss can be computed from the fiber nominal values (length
   and attenuation coefficient), measured by the node (using a probe
   signal) or provisioned as a link parameter.




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   The impairment is SCALAR, wavelength independent, time independed
   (apart from fiber aging but only on long period of times).

6.1.2.  Insertion Losses (Optical components looses)

   It's the optical power loss caused by the optical elements crossed by
   the channel in a node.  It's measured as the ratio (dB) between the
   optical power at the input and output port (see [ITU.G671] Section
   3.2.9).  The possible channel paths in a node are (see [ITU.G680]
   Section 3.2.1):

   o  from the input port to the output port for through channels

   o  from the input port to the drop port for dropped channels

   o  form the add port to the output port for added channels

   This classification applies to any type of node: PXC, ROADM, etc.
   The loss value for each path is dependent on the internal node
   architecture and vendor device characteristics and could be different
   for each different port pair.

   The insertion losses directly affect the signal optical power at the
   receiver interface: losses are accumulated along the path and
   compensated by Optical Amplifiers.

   The impairment is SCALAR, wavelength independent and time
   independent.

6.1.3.  Amplifier Spontaneous Emission (ASE)

   It's the noise introduced by the node optical amplifiers spontaneous
   emission that propagates with the amplified signal and is further
   amplified along the path (see [ITU.G663] Section II.6.1).  The
   impairment is considered an OSNR contribution (dB) and directly
   affects the signal SNR at the receiver interface (see [ITU.G663]
   Section II.6.2).

   The ASE noise contribution can be evaluated from the amplifier
   parameters and the input signal characteristics (signal optical
   power).

   The impairment is SCALAR and wavelength independent.  Regarding time-
   dependency ASE depends on amplifier gain and this may change
   depending on network stability.






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6.1.4.  Crosstalk

   It's the effect of signal power leakage from other channels inside
   the node optical elements (multiplexer, de-multiplexer, optical
   switches, etc.) and is measured as the ratio of the disturbing power
   and the signal power (dB) (see [ITU.G692] Section 6.7.1).

   The crosstalk value is dependent on the device characteristics and
   the ratio of the optical power of involved channels.  The device
   characteristics can be considered constant in time, while the
   channels configuration depends on the network status.

   The crosstalk impairment affects the signal SNR and optical power at
   the receiver interface: the accumulated crosstalk can be converted to
   an SNR and power penalty.

   The impairment is MULTI-CHANNEL (depends on existings active
   channels) and wavelength independent.

6.1.5.  Fiber Chromatic Dispersion

   It's the degradation of the optical signal due to the different
   propagation delay of the various spectral components causing the
   broadening of the pulse and is defined by the slope of the delay with
   respect to the wavelength (ps/nm) (see [ITU.G650] Section 1.5).  The
   effect can be compensated by means of fiber spans with an inverse
   dispersion (DCF - Dispersion Compensation Fiber) usually deployed in
   modules with pre-configured characteristics (DCU - Dispersion
   Compensation Unit).

   The chromatic dispersion introduced by each fiber span is dependent
   on:

   o  fiber chromatic dispersion coefficient (ps/(nm * Km)) This
      coefficient depends on the channel wavelength (it's usually
      defined as the value for a reference wavelength and a slope
      coefficient).

   o  fiber length (Km).

   The chromatic dispersion of each fiber span can be evaluated from the
   fiber characteristics and the channel wavelength.

   The chromatic dispersion accumulates along the path compensated by
   the DCU modules obtaining a residual chromatic dispersion at the
   receiver interface the affects the signal SNR.

   The impairment is SCALAR, Wavelength-Dependent and time-independent



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   (apart from ageing effects over long period of times).

6.1.6.  Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD)

   It's the degradation of the optical signal due to the different
   propagation delay of the two principal states of polarization (DGD -
   Differential Group Delay) causing the pulse distortion in shape and
   width (see [ITU.G663] Section II.4.1 and [ITU.G661] Section 5.1.36)
   and is measured in ps.

   The PMD introduced by a fiber span depends on:

   o  the square root of the fiber length (Km)

   o  the fiber PMD coefficient (ps/sqrt(Km))

   The PMD introduced by other components (e.g. amplifiers, DCU modules,
   etc.) is provided as a device parameter.

   The PMD coefficient may depend on temperature and operating
   conditions and can be very variable.

   The PMD can be evaluated from the fiber or device parameters; due to
   the high variability, an upper bound value is usually considered.

   The PMD accumulates along the path and affects the signal SNR at the
   receiver interface.

   The impairment is SCALAR.

6.1.7.  Polarization Dependent Loss (PDL)

   It's the difference in the signal power among different polarization
   states caused by the medium irregularities (see [ITU.G663] Section
   II.4.1 and [ITU.G671] Section 3.2.23) and is defined as the ratio
   (dB) of the maximum and minimum peak transmission power with respect
   to all polarization states.  On amplifiers the same effect is called
   Polarization Dependent Gain (PDG) (see [ITU.G661] Section 5.1.11).

   The PDL introduced by a device appears as a random variation of the
   signal power and can be managed as a statistical value (function of
   the number of optical elements traversed) (see [ITU.G680] Section
   9.3.2).

   The PDL accumulates along the path and affects the signal SNR and
   power at the receiver interface.

   The impairment is and SCALAR wavelength independent.



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6.2.  Fiber Optical Non-Linearities

   In this section provide information about optical impairments called
   Non-Linear.  In general they will need a control plane able to
   exploit multi-channel and multi-hop attibutes.  Due to this
   complexity leave this placeholder for further updates.

   o  Self Phase Modulation (SPM) (see [ITU.G663] Section II.3.1).
      It's the degradation of the optical signal due to the time varying
      fiber refraction index (the higher intensity portion of the pulse
      is subject to a higher refractive index than the lower intensity
      portion) causing the pulse broadening in the frequency domain.

   o  Cross Phase Modulation (XPM) (see [ITU.G663] Section II.3.3).
      It's the degradation of the optical signal due to the time varying
      fiber refraction index induced by the adjacent channels intensity
      fluctuations.

   o  Four Wave Mixing (FWM) (see [ITU.G663] Section II.3.5).
      It's the degradation of the optical signal due to the interaction
      with the spurious optical wavelengths generated by three optical
      channels that co-propagate inside a fiber.

   o  Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) (see [ITU.G663] Section
      II.3.6).
      It's the degradation of the optical signal due to the signal
      scattering caused by the fiber medium when the input power is
      above the SBS threshold.

   o  Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) (see [ITU.G663] Section II.3.6).
      It's the degradation of the optical signal due to the signal
      scattering caused by the fiber medium when the input power is
      above the SBS threshold.


7.  Optical Channel Estimation

   The lightpath quality defines the ability of the receiver to
   correctly decode the signal within a defined error rate (BER).  The
   BER depends on the signal encoding (e.g.  FEC, modulation format,
   etc.), the signal optical characteristics (optical power, OSNR, etc.)
   and the receiver characteristics.

   The goal of this section is to define the set of parameters that need
   to be evaluated in order to get a direct estimation of the lightpath
   quality at the receiver node; all the above described impairments can
   be considered as an effect on these parameters.




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   These optical parameters shall be considered together with their
   statistical values: average and variance.  This information helps in
   understanding the error accumulated along with parameter evaluation.

7.1.  Optical Power

   The signal optical power must be within the dynamic range of the
   receiver and above the receiver minimum power (receiver sensitivity).
   The receiver minimum power is a receiver characteristic and depends
   also on the signal characteristics as the used forward error
   correction (FEC), [others ? mod-format ?]

   [[Q3: Need to add a formal definition with the ITU reference --GM]]

7.2.  Optical Signal to Noise Ratio

   The optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) is the ratio of the signal
   power in the wanted channel to the highest noise power density
   (referred to 0.1 nm) within the channel frequency range (see
   [ITU.G661] Section 5.1.19).  The signal OSNR must be above a receiver
   minimum threshold (receiver sensitivity); the threshold is a receiver
   characteristic and depends also on the signal characteristics ([which
   ones ?]).

7.3.  Residual Chromatic Dispersion

   The residual chromatic dispersion is the signal chromatic dispersion
   at the receiver interface (the accumulated and compensated dispersion
   along).  The signal dispersion value must be within a receiver
   threshold for the signal to be correctly decoded.

   The chromatic dispersion effects on the signal quality can be managed
   as an OSNR or/and an optical power penalty.

7.4.  Residual Differtial Group Delay (DGD)

   [Editoral Note: TO BE FILLED]

7.5.  Q-Factor

   The Q-factor is a synthetic measure of the signal quality defined as
   a function of the mean values of the '0' and '1' signal levels and
   their standard deviation (see [ITU.G976] Section A.1).

   The Q-factor is dependent on the signal OSNR and is directly related
   to the BER.

   The evaluation of the Q-factory requires the estimation of the signal



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   waveform at the receiver interface.


8.  Acknowledgements

   Authors would like to thanks Adrian Farrel for all suggestions and
   reviews of this work.


9.  Contributing Authors

   This document was the collective work of several authors.  The text
   and content of this document was contributed by the editors and the
   co-authors listed below (the contact information for the editors
   appears in appropriate section and is not repeated below):

   Gabriele Maria Galimberti
   Cisco Systems
   via Philips 12
   Monza  20052
   Italy

   Email: ggalimbe@cisco.com

   Domenico La Fauci                      Maurizio Gazzola
   Cisco Systems                          Cisco Systems
   via Philips 12                         via Philips 12
   Monza  20052                           Monza  20052
   Italy                                  Italy

   Email: dlafauci@cisco.com              Email: mgazzola@cisco.com

   Roberto Cassata                        Zafar Ali
   Cisco Systems                          Cisco Systems
   via Philips 12                         3000 Innovation Drive
   Monza  20052                           Kanata , ONTARIO K2K 3E8
   Italy                                  Canada

   Email: rcassata@cisco.com              Email: zali@cisco.com


   Elio Salvadori                         Yabin  Ye
   CREATE-NET                             CREATE-NET
   via alla Cascata 56 C, Povo            via alla Cascata 56 C, Povo
   Trento  38100                          Trento  38100
   Italy                                  Italy

   Email: elio.salvadori@create-net.org   Email: yabin.ye@create-net.org



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   Chava Vijaya Saradhi
   CREATE-NET
   via alla Cascata 56 C, Povo
   Trento  38100
   Italy

   Email: saradhi.chava@create-net.org

   Ernesto Damiani
   University of Milan, Department of Information Technology
   Via Bramante 65, 26013 Crema (CR)
   Italy

   Email: damiani@dti.unimi.it

   Valerio Bellandi
   University of Milan, Department of Information Technology
   Via Bramante 65, 26013 Crema (CR)
   Italy

   Email: bellandi@dti.unimi.it

   Marco Anisetti
   University of Milan, Department of Information Technology
   Via Bramante 65, 26013 Crema (CR)
   Italy

   Email: anisetti@dti.unimi.it




10.  IANA Considerations

   This memo includes no request to IANA.


11.  Security Considerations

   All drafts are required to have a security considerations section.
   See RFC 3552 [RFC3552] for a guide.


12.  References







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12.1.  Normative References

   [I-D.ietf-ccamp-wavelength-switched-framework]
              Bernstein, G., Lee, Y., and W. Imajuku, "Framework for
              GMPLS and PCE Control of Wavelength Switched Optical
              Networks  (WSON)",
              draft-ietf-ccamp-wavelength-switched-framework-00 (work in
              progress), May 2008.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC3945]  Mannie, E., "Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching
              (GMPLS) Architecture", RFC 3945, October 2004.

   [RFC4202]  Kompella, K. and Y. Rekhter, "Routing Extensions in
              Support of Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching
              (GMPLS)", RFC 4202, October 2005.

   [RFC4209]  Fredette, A. and J. Lang, "Link Management Protocol (LMP)
              for Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) Optical
              Line Systems", RFC 4209, October 2005.

12.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.bernstein-ccamp-wson-signaling]
              Bernstein, G., "Signaling Extensions for Wavelength
              Switched Optical Networks",
              draft-bernstein-ccamp-wson-signaling-02 (work in
              progress), July 2008.

   [I-D.ietf-ccamp-rwa-info]
              Bernstein, G., Lee, Y., Li, D., and W. Imajuku, "Routing
              and Wavelength Assignment Information Model for Wavelength
              Switched  Optical Networks", draft-ietf-ccamp-rwa-info-00
              (work in progress), August 2008.

   [I-D.narten-iana-considerations-rfc2434bis]
              Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
              IANA Considerations Section in RFCs",
              draft-narten-iana-considerations-rfc2434bis-09 (work in
              progress), March 2008.

   [ITU.G650]
              International Telecommunications Union, "Definition and
              test methods for the relevant parameters of single-mode
              fibres", ITU-T Recommendation G.650, March 1993.




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   [ITU.G661]
              International Telecommunications Union, "Definitions and
              test methods for the relevant generic parameters of
              optical amplifier devices and subsystems", ITU-
              T Recommendation G.661, July 2007.

   [ITU.G663]
              International Telecommunications Union, "Application
              related aspects of optical amplifier devices and sub-
              systems", ITU-T Recommendation G.663, April 2000.

   [ITU.G671]
              International Telecommunications Union, "Transmission
              characteristics of optical components and subsystems",
              ITU-T Recommendation G.671, Jannuary 2005.

   [ITU.G680]
              International Telecommunications Union, "Physical transfer
              functions of optical network elements", ITU-
              T Recommendation G.680, July 2007.

   [ITU.G692]
              International Telecommunications Union, "Optical
              interfaces for multichannel systems with optical
              amplifiers", ITU-T Recommendation G.692, October 1998.

   [ITU.G697]
              International Telecommunications Union, "Optical
              monitoring for DWDM systems", ITU-T Recommendation G.697,
              June 2004.

   [ITU.G698.2]
              International Telecommunications Union, "Amplified
              multichannel DWDM applications with single channel optical
              interfaces", ITU-T Recommendation G.697, July 2007.

   [ITU.G976]
              International Telecommunications Union, "Test methods
              applicable to optical fibre submarine cable systems", ITU-
              T Recommendation G.976, July 2007.

   [RFC3552]  Rescorla, E. and B. Korver, "Guidelines for Writing RFC
              Text on Security Considerations", BCP 72, RFC 3552,
              July 2003.

   [RFC4054]  Strand, J. and A. Chiu, "Impairments and Other Constraints
              on Optical Layer Routing", RFC 4054, May 2005.




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   [RFC4655]  Farrel, A., Vasseur, J., and J. Ash, "A Path Computation
              Element (PCE)-Based Architecture", RFC 4655, August 2006.


Appendix A.  ITU Parameters Missing Information

   In this appendix we need to collects all information about optical
   parameters that need to be verified with / requested from ITU.


Authors' Addresses

   Giovanni Martinelli (editor)
   Cisco Systems
   via Philips 12
   Monza  20052
   Italy

   Email: giomarti@cisco.com


   David Bianchi (editor)
   Cisco Systems
   via Philips 12
   Monza  20052
   Italy

   Email: davbianc@cisco.com


   Alberto Tanzi (editor)
   Cisco Systems
   via Philips 12
   Monza  20052
   Italy

   Email: altanzi@cisco.com


   Ori Gerstel (editor)
   Cisco Systems
   3500 Cisco Way
   San Jose  CA 95134
   United States

   Email: ogerstel@cisco.com





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   Andrea Zanardi (editor)
   CREATE-NET
   via alla Cascata 56 C, Povo
   Trento  38100
   Italy

   Email: andrea.zanardi@create-net.org












































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