This home page briefly addresses to what has been achieved in Nobel phase 1 and what is going to be done in Nobel phase 2.

The IST Integrated Project NOBEL (Next generation Optical network for Broadband European Leadership) already addressed the topic of the growth of optical transport networks.

After more than two years of work (January 2004- February 2006) NOBEL (phase 1) has achieved some important results: definition of evolving network scenarios, study, design and implementation of prototypes of Control Plane emulators and simulators with advanced ASON/GMPLS functionalities, analysis of business cases considering CAPEX and OPEX, analysis of NOBEL's impact on Information Society, to identify new business opportunities and new business roles, identification of convenient network architectures for burst/packet networks, specification of building blocks for optical transport interfaces and evaluation of optical & electronic equalisation subsystem behaviour, feasibility study of an integrated field trial interconnecting the NOBEL test-bed with local test beds developed all over Europe, one of the most important distributed test-bed in the world. Figure 1 shows the reference network framework of the NOBEL (phase 1) project.

The NOBEL (phase 1) project also identified a number of major bottlenecks of existing networks that should be solved in order to achieve these major goals. Here is the list of these bottlenecks, grouped into data plane, control plane and management related issues.

Data Plane: elimination of redundant OEO conversions in nodes with passing-through wavelengths, bandwidth adjustment in steps with fine granularity and short provisioning time, resolution of packet- delay and jitter are problems when packet oriented communication is used, analysis of metro-core interface in order to enable market competition on the different levels of the network.

Control Plane: exploit ASON/GMPLS to take the opportunity of discovery, identification and control of network resources with reduced management cost, manage the number of addresses needed to cope with the growing number of network equipment and user terminals, assure complete compatibility between old and new equipment during migration to a new network.

Management

• Multi vendor networks with incompatible management interfaces have to be managed separately, which increase complexity, and inhibits competition. Moreover, an inter-domain management standard would help for the management of end-to-end connectivity crossing different administrative domains.
• New software releases have to be installed very frequently to solve software problems. A reduction in software complexity, by organizing it in a number of independent parts with clear interfaces in between, could help to increase the time between updates.

Furthermore, the NOBEL project has identified four basic network scenarios for network evolution that progressively overcome the existing problems. Specifically:

• A short-term scenario based on IP/MPLS and Ethernet, NG-SDH and OTN, which may run some ASON/GMPLS functionalities.
• A medium-term scenario based on the coexistence of IP/MPLS and Ethernet, NG-SDH, OTN, with a certain level of vertical integration; OTN has some enhanced ASON/GMPLS functionalities.
• A long-term scenario based on GMPLS where a peer-to-peer model is adopted for a vertical/horizontal integration.
• An extended long-term scenario with the introduction of burst/packet switching in optical networks.

Figure 2 shows these evolutionary network scenarios.

These achievements and these open issues constitute the basis for the continuation of the study and demonstration work of NOBEL phase 2.

The growth of core transport networks in Europe has recently assumed a more gradual and stable trend and it is now definitely oriented to the support of broadband services for a wide mass of European citizens. This evolution is lead by a few basic drivers:

• to improve quality and efficiency in providing current and new services,
• to optimise the use of resources,
• to limit operating costs.

These challenging objectives require a revision of network architectures and technologies, an integration of IP and transport layers including advanced Control Plane interworking, and an easy, automated management of optical circuits for fast provisioning and restoration.

The main goal of the IST Integrated Project NOBEL phase 2 is the progress of optical transport networks for a pervasive introduction of broadband services in Europe. Leveraging on the results of the precursor project NOBEL, it is specifically devoted to:

• demonstration of the network concepts developed in NOBEL (phase 1) in integrated test beds and local experiments with special emphasis on end-to-end applications;

• detailed elaboration of NOBEL (phase 1) network concepts and further development of new network concepts coping with recently emerged opportunities such as the fixed-mobile convergence and the introduction of IPv6.