The upcoming massive deployment of NextGen/IoT devices together with the definition of new services are expected to impact the broadband connectivity portfolio, with the 39.1% of connections faster than 100 Mb/s and the double of devices connected by 2023. The increase of connected devices and traffic is expected to push optical network capacity beyond its current limit. The ZeTON (Zero-Touch end-to-end Optical Networks) project targets the design and Proof of Concept demonstration of a novel end-to-end integrated optical transport architecture based on optical transmission and switching.

Novel data-plane devices, deployed together with disaggregated optical transmission system, are envisaged to achieve agility and to support for massive traffic loads. At the basis of this new paradigm, novel optical white box architectures, using pluggable optics, are conceived. ZeTON will focus on multi-domain scenarios, the optical-continuum paradigm, by fostering the removal of fixed boundaries between network segments. Thus, the control plane functionalities will be extended to support novel data-plane nodes and the new “domain-less” network architecture. ZeTON will explore the coordination of the data-plane elements, extending the concepts of SDN service orchestration and provisioning.

The control plane will be devised in the context of the Zero-Touch Networking, relying on physical layer abstraction, impairment modelling and a telemetry-based monitoring system, enabling the intent-based autonomous networking and the application of Machine Learning-driven network operation for network self-diagnosis. ZeTON will have a clear impact on the society, following the evolution of NextGen devices and novel network services with increased bandwidth, and connectivity needs (e.g., extremely low latency, high reliability and low power consumption).