SOFTWARE DEFINED OPTICAL NETWORKS (SDON) - TRAINING AND RESEARCH LABORATORY FOR TEIN (TRANS EURASIA INFORMATION NETWORK) NRENS (NATIONAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORK)
Software defined optical networks have been extensively investigated in the recent past to provide programmability, automation, fast (re)configuration, operational cost reduction and to create dynamic solutions and applications through SDN enabled orchestration and control. In the recent years, SDN has been extended by introducing the concept of softwarization of network functions (network function virtualization – NFV). The main driving force for this evolution is the need for dynamic deployment of 5G services, which have requirements for resources (processing, storage and networking) that rapidly change over time.
The idea is to establish a Software Defined Optical Networking Lab in the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) of Islamabad, in collaboration with Photonic Networks & Technologies National Lab (PNTLab), in Pisa.

Collaborators
Objectives
SDON lab will be equipped with open optical line systems and application software to develop and test different SDN control and management applications. The lab will be connected to PERN (Pakistan Education & Research Network) transport network so that PERN infrastructure can be utilized to test developed algorithms, applications, etc. All the resources of the proposed SDON lab will be accessible to other TEIN members through remote access tools, using TEIN infrastructure. That will create the possibility of future joint research collaborations between regional NRENs.




Publications
Fehmida Usmani, Ihtesham Khan, Mehek Siddiqui, Mahnoor Khan, Muhammad Bilal, M Umar Masood, Arsalan Ahmad, Muhammad Shahzad, Vittorio Curri
