Alliance concept

The network of the ALLIANCE-B includes optical access, metro, core and data centre network segments. At the data plane, in line with the expertise and background of the ALLIACE-B group, optical technologies are being investigated. In particular, ALLIANCE-B is designing cost-effective and energy efficient optical nodes for the convergence between access and metro segments, Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM) solutions for the core segment, disaggregated network approaches and all-optical solutions for inter/intra-data centres interconnects. At the control, management and orchestration layer, architectural solutions based on the concepts of SDN and NFV are being investigated, prototyped and experimentally assessed.

Main objectives:

• Design, development and experimental assessment of the control, management and cognitive orchestration framework based on the SDN/NFV concepts for heterogeneous network and IT resources management.
• Design and implementation of the optical nodes.
• 5G-enabling optical transmission technologies.