Software Defined Networking for cognitive Radio over Fiber systems

In this paper a novel cognitive Radio over Fiber (RoF) system lined up with Software Defined Networking (SDN) requirements is presented. First, the SDN paradigm for the proposed hybrid RoF system with centralized topology is developed. Then, cognitive process enabling self-aware RoF network is outlined. The goal is to allow traffic and network supervision and enable whole system intelligent management. In particular, we have defined the optical and radio sensing parameters, the required network controllers and the adaptation parameters. To highlight the impact of cognitive processing and the ability of the control plane to enhance the RoF network performances, some test scenarios are investigated.