Optical Network Control: Architecture, Protocols, and Standards

Greg Bernstein | Bala Rajagopalan | Debanjan Saha

1 A comprehensive yet digestible intro to optical networks
This was a book I wanted to read but could not convince myself to start on, primarily because its title was rather "ominous" given the range of topics it seemed to span. I was afraid that I would actually have to essentially go through what would mostly be a series of back to back RFCs, which is certainly not the most pleasant way of getting introduced to a topic.

However, I ultimately got started and was very pleasantly surprised. The book does indeed cover all those topics, and they are all important to a good comprehension of network control issues in optical networks. However, it does so in a logical and progressive way that introduces the key concepts and provides the appropriate level of details without overwhelming the reader. The three authors clearly have both an extensive practical knowledge of the topics and a deep understanding of the underlying technologies and analytical tools. This is reflected in the exposition of the different topics that the book cover, as well as the flow and organization of the material.

The end result is a concise yet complete book that walks you effectively through the concepts, protocols and technologies used to control modern optical networks.

Definitely a book to read if you are interested in the domain.

2 Great intro to the most important area of optical networking
Optical networks have long had very advanced physical layer management, but have been manually planned and provisioned at extremely high operational cost. Applying technology derived from IP routing to the optical network control plane is the most exciting new development in the optical systems field since the 1970's. The authors are early pioneers that first brought this technology to market about 3 years ago. They have done the industry a great favor by laying out a concise and well architected roadmap for others to follow. This will be the standard reference work on the optical control plane for many years to come.