Dynamic wavelength virtualization and/or on-demand flow provisioning in optical networks

1. A network apparatus used in an optical network, the network apparatus comprising:

one or more first tunable and temperature controlled (TTC) lasers;

one or more transmitters each of which is connected to one of said one or more TTC lasers;

one or more second TTC lasers;

one or more digital signal processing (DSP) transponders (TPNDs) each of which is connected to one of said one or more second TTC lasers;

one or more receivers; a flexible-grid wavelength selective switch (WSS);

a controller to:

control said one or more transmitters and said one or more DSP TPNDs via OpenFlow signaling;

control, via OpenFlow signaling, the WSS to dynamically create pass-bands with variable center frequencies and sizes for dynamic upstream wavelength-flows; and

control, via OpenFlow signaling, the wavelength of said one or more first TTC lasers and said one or more second TTC lasers, using an extended OpenFlow application programming interface (API) that controls the underlying laser firmware (FW); and

a flow map graphical user interface to view, query, and modify in software physical downstream (DS) and upstream (US) connections;

wherein said one or more transmitters defragment an optical access spectrum, and said one or more DSP TPNDs exploit a newly available spectrum, and

wherein the physical DS and US connections are virtualized as logical flows between bidirectional OpenFlow port identifiers.

2. The network apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the network apparatus comprises a software-defined optical line terminal (OLT).

3. The network apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the optical network comprises an optical access network or a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) network.

4. The network apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the flexible-grid WSS is connected to said one or more receivers and wavelength-separates an US optical signal.

5. The network apparatus as in claim 1 , further comprising:

at least one of a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) combiner and a passive optical coupler,

wherein said at least one of the WDM combiner and a passive optical coupler is connected to said one or more first TTC lasers and combines DS wavelengths.

6. The network apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein said one or more receivers include a burst-mode optical receiver for a time division multiplexing (TDM)-based service with a data rate up to 10 Gb/s/λ.

7. The network apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein said one or more receivers include a coherent detection receiver for a service with a data rate beyond 10 Gb/s/λ.

8. The network apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the controller controls said one or more transmitters and said one or more DSP TPNDs with dynamic wavelength assignment algorithm.

9. The network apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the controller controls said one or more transmitters and said one or more DSP TPNDs with wavelength virtualization mapping.

10. The network apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface includes a virtual view of a wavelength space.

11. The network apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the network apparatus is connected to an optical network unit (GNU) through an optical fiber.

12. The network apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the controller comprises a centralized controller.

13. A method used in an optical network, the method comprising: controlling, via OpenFlow signaling, one or more transmitters each of which is connected to a first tunable and temperature controlled (TTC) laser and one or more digital signal processing (DSP) transponders (TPNDs) each of which is connected to a second TTC laser;

controlling, via OpenFlow signaling, a flexible-grid wavelength selective switch (WSS) to dynamically create pass-bands with variable center frequencies and sizes for dynamic upstream wavelength-flows;

controlling, via OpenFlow signaling, the wavelength of said one or more first TTC lasers and said one or more second TTC lasers, using an extended OpenFlow application programming interface (API) that controls the underlying laser firmware (FW); and

at least one of viewing, querying, and modifying in software physical downstream (DS) and upstream (US) connections on a flow map graphical user interface;

wherein said one or more transmitters defragment an optical access spectrum, and said one or more DSP TPNDs exploit a newly available spectrum, and

wherein the physical DS and US connections are virtualized as logical flows between bidirectional OpenFlow port identifiers.

14. The method as in claim 13 , wherein said one or more transmitters and said one or more DSP TPNDs are controlled via control signaling comprising five 16-bit fields.

15. The method as in claim 14 , wherein the five 16-bit fields comprise:

a 16-bit numerical label to an underlying optical wavelength;

sub-wavelength operational frequencies of a signal; and

a modulation format of the signal.

16. An optical network comprising: a network apparatus; an optical network unit connected to the network apparatus through an optical fiber, wherein the network apparatus comprises:

one or more first tunable and temperature controlled (TTC) lasers;

one or more transmitters each of which is connected to one of said one or more TTC lasers;

one or more second TTC lasers;

one or more digital signal processing (DSP) transponders (TPNDs) each of

which is connected to one of said one or more second TTC lasers; one or more receivers; a flexible-grid wavelength selective switch (WSS);

a controller to:

control, via OpenFlow signaling, the wavelength of said one or more first TTC lasers and said one or more second TTC lasers, using an extended OpenFlow application programming interface (API) that controls the underlying laser firmware (FW); and

control, via OpenFlow signaling, the WSS to dynamically create pass-bands with variable center frequencies and sizes for dynamic upstream wavelength-flows; and

one or more flow map graphical user interfaces to view, query, and modify in software physical downstream (DS) and upstream (US) connections;

wherein said one or more transmitters defragment an optical access spectrum, and said one or more DSP TPNDs exploit a newly available spectrum, and

wherein the physical DS and US connections are virtualized as logical flows between bidirectional OpenFlow port identifiers.

17. The network apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein said one or more DSP TPNDs communicate by optical orthogonal frequency division multiple access (optical OFDMA) signaling for coexistence with baseband on off keying (OOK) transmission.