A suite of optical network testbeds for a realistic evaluation of MAINS' sub-wavelength switched metro network architectures

This paper discusses the requirements and motivations for setting-up and utilizing two different optical fiber test-beds both of a Telecom Operator as well as the UEssex/JANET Aurora field fiber testbed for optical metro networks research within the EU ICT MAINS project. Using both test-beds the MAINS project aims to evaluate its proposed mesh-ring topologies which feature innovative sub-wavelength switching nodes. Different research and technology attributes are considered for evaluation over the research and real commercial environments. The paper illustrates how the first test-bed scenario is designed to experimentally analyze multi-technology interoperability both at the data and control planes and how the second test-bed scenario with the use of a virtual PC application over sub-wavelength switching ring network aims to validate the proposed solutions with real customers and obtain supportive statistics and performance measures.