Physical and functional awareness in optical networks

The ever-growing complexity of communication networking has been enhanced by the huge capacity of optical networks, raising the need for new architectures. The WDM layer is now asked to be aware of emerging limitations of the physical layer and QoS requirements of the upper layers. This situation suggests that at least part of the network be designed for self-organization. The paper discusses the merits of swarm intelligence, and especially Ant Colony Optimization, to support a self-organized control plane of an optical network.