Control and management of transponders with NETCONF and YANG

The continuous evolution of elastic optical networks (EONs) toward more efficient and flexible backbone networks has been enabled by the innovation of data and control plane technologies. Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) is emerging as a software-defined networking (SDN) protocol for the control of optical networks. Its relevance is due to the fact that, besides providing control functionalities (e.g., data plane device configuration), NETCONF also provides management functionalities (e.g., access to monitoring information). NETCONF may exploit the Yet Another Next Generation (YANG) data model to describe network elements to be controlled/managed. YANG and NETCONF are of interest for operators since they provide a standard way to control and manage network elements independently from the vendor. This paper presents and demonstrates a control and management plane for EONs, based on the NETCONF protocol and YANG. In particular, a YANG model describing optical transponders supporting sliceability, variable rate, and monitoring functionalities is proposed. NETCONF experimental demonstrations are carried out to validate the proposed model and to prove the control and management capabilities of these technologies when applied to EONs.