Topology-reconfigurable optical mobile fronthaul architecture with software-defined connectivity and hierarchical QoS

1. A method comprising:

providing run-time optical mobile fronthaul (MFH) topology re-configurability through software-defined control of both optical circuit switches and electrical packet switches handling traffic patterns and latency optical by-pass based device-to-device connectivity, the providing comprising:

employing either an optical switch for wavelength-tunable transceivers or an optical switch for fixed-wavelength optical transceivers;

providing, with the wavelength-tunable optical transceivers, optical bypass functionality and optical-layer connectivity enabled by optical elements without wavelength tunability or software defined network SDN based control for optical multiplexer and demultiplexer components, or providing optical bypass functionality and optical-layer connectivity using the fixed wavelength optical transceivers without wavelength tunability or SDN-based control, through centralized wavelength tuning functionality of SDN-controlled wavelength-tunable optical demultiplexer elements; and

enabling, with optical circulators a bi-directional any-downlink/any-uplink optical transceiver connectivity and optical bypass functionality using single-fiber optical access between the circulators and mobile-side transceivers.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of providing comprises a software defined network controller featuring centralized control plane connections to both optical and electrical domain switching and processing elements.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein topology reconfiguration decisions made by the software defined network controller are implementable at run-time by configuring elements of the optical and electrical domain switching and processing elements using coupled control plane connections instantiated using a variety of SDN compatible interface languages.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of providing comprises providing dynamic configuring of individual elements of baseband processing units, SDN switches, the wavelength-tunable optical transceivers if employed, and the optical switches for enabling topology re-configurability supporting point-to-point, point-to-multipoint and passive optical network and mesh architectures.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of providing comprises creating a bidirectional point-to-point optical mobile fronthaul MFH connection between baseband processing units and a remote 3G/4G cell site using a single optical fiber.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of providing comprises creating a bidirectional point-to-multipoint optical MFH connection between baseband processing units and remote cell sites using a single optical distribution fiber.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of providing comprises connecting SDN packet switch ports with optical switch ports to create a downlink point-to-multipoint optical mobile fronthaul connection between a baseband processing unit and remote cell sites for downlink multipoint communication between two cell sites.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of providing with the wavelength-tunable optical transceivers comprises downlinking transmission from a first set of optical transceivers to a second set of optical transceivers, wherein optical signals from optical transmitter ports of the first set of optical transceivers are first combined by a N:1 optical multiplexer and then optically connected to an 1:M coupler, followed by an optical de-multiplexer.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the step of providing with the wavelength-tunable optical transceivers comprises dynamically tuning transmitting wavelengths of transmitters of the first set of optical transceivers, and the wavelength outputs of the demultiplexer or receiving wavelengths of receivers of the second set of optical transceivers.

10. An optical network comprising:

a run-time optical mobile fronthaul MFH topology re-configurability through software-defined control of both optical circuit switches and electrical packet switches handling traffic patterns and latency optical by-pass based device-to-device connectivity, the network comprising:

either an optical switch for wavelength-tunable transceivers or an optical switch for fixed-wavelength optical transceivers, respectively, the wavelength-tunable optical transceivers providing optical bypass functionality or the fixed wavelength optical transceivers providing optical-layer connectivity without wavelength tunability or SDN-based control through centralized wavelength tuning functionality of SDN-controlled wavelength-tunable optical demultiplexer elements; and

optical circulators enabling a bi-directional any-downlink/any-uplink optical transceiver connectivity and optical bypass functionality using single-fiber optical access between the circulators and mobile-side transceivers.

11. The network of claim 10 , wherein the run-time optical MFH topology re-configurability comprises a software defined network controller featuring centralized control plane connections to both optical and electrical domain switching and processing elements.

12. The network of claim 10 , wherein topology reconfiguration decisions made by the software defined network controller are implementable at run-time by configuring elements of the optical and electrical domain switching and processing elements using coupled control plane connections instantiated using a variety of SDN compatible interface languages.

13. The network of claim 10 , wherein the run-time optical MFH topology re-configurability comprises providing dynamic configuring of individual elements of baseband processing units, SDN switches, the wavelength-tunable optical transceivers if employed, and the optical switches for enabling topology re-configurability supporting point-to-point, point-to-multipoint and passive optical network and mesh architectures.

14. The network of claim 10 , wherein the run-time optical MFH topology re-configurability comprises creating a bidirectional point-to-point optical mobile fronthaul MFH connection is created between baseband processing units and a remote 3G/4G cell site using a single optical fiber.

15. The network of claim 10 , wherein the run-time optical MFH topology re-configurability comprises creating a bidirectional point-to-multipoint optical MFH connection between baseband processing units and remote cell sites using a single optical distribution fiber.

16. The network of claim 10 , wherein the run-time optical MFH topology re-configurability comprises connecting SDN packet switch ports with optical switch ports to create a downlink point-to-multipoint optical mobile fronthaul connection between a baseband processing unit and remote cell sites.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the run-time optical MFH topology re-configurability with the wavelength-tunable optical transceivers comprises for downlink transmission from a first set of optical transceivers to a second set of optical transceivers, optical signals from optical transmitter ports of the first set of optical transceivers are first combined by a N:1 optical multiplexer and then optically connected to an 1:M coupler, followed by an optical de-multiplexer.

18. The network of claim 17 , wherein the run-time optical MFH topology re-configurability with the wavelength-tunable optical transceivers comprises dynamically tuning transmitting wavelengths of transmitters of the first set of optical transceivers.