Application, design, and evolution of WDM in GTS's Pan-European Transport Network

A pan-European transport network must cope with enormous traffic inflation by introducing appropriate network solutions. WDM technology is the solutio n adopted by GTS, driven by capacity requirements, infrastructure availabil ity, flexibility, and cost. The deployment of this new technology presents specific technical issues, but more important, it lays the foundation of fu ture optical networking. In this article we describe the motives underlying the deployment of WDM technology in the long-haul and short-haul areas of GTS's operational transport network. Next, after presenting the use of WDM as the multiservice platform for SDH and IP overlay networks as well as nat ive WDM services, we focus on the design of SDH-over-WDM and IP-over-WDM ne tworks. Finally, we discuss future WDM networking and management requiremen ts to better serve the needs of a pan-European carrier such as GTS.