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OAB: Optical transport networks
Telecommunications service providers are having to respond to higher traffic loads and the demands for lightning speed communications. Meanwhile, the venerable synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) that operators have depended on for many years has reached retirement age.
This online course provides an in-depth, impartial treatment of the operation and possible architectures of, and services provided by, the optical transport networks that are replacing SDH networks.
Coming soon!
This course will be released in March 2025.
To become one of the first to study this content once released please contact us.
Level:
What does this mean?
Target audience:
Those involved in designing, implementing, and maintaining optical transport networks. for public communications services, and those responsible for national communications for the utility, rail and corporate sectors.
Course prerequisites:
An understanding of time division multiplexing, connection oriented packet switching, and wavelength division multiplexing. It is recommended that the following PTT online courses are studied before attempting this course: "Modulation and multiplexing" and "Introduction to wide area networks". A prior appreciation of legacy SDH networks will also be beneficial; this subject is covered by the PTT course "SDH principles".
Course objectives:
By the end of this course you will be able to:
- describe the characteristics required for the telecommunications networks that provide services to residential and business customers.
- explain the transition from TDM to IP-based service provision and the challenges involved in providing a comparable service.
- describe and compare the role and facilities of the various transport technologies and protocols that may be employed in a telecoms network
- explain the factors that influence the capacity of DWDM optical links.
- explain the advantages of optical switching with references to the facilities provided by a reconfigurable add-drop multiplexer (ROADM).
- explain how client signals are transported over an optical transport network (OTN) as specified by the ITU in recommendation G.709.
- describe the role and provision of OAM facilities and automatic protection switching in an OTN.
- describe and compare methods of mapping client signals into the payload of OTN transport signals.
- compare methods of providing connection oriented services in an OTN with reference to the use of MPLS, Carrier Ethernet, and OTN switching.
- describe the characteristics and typical applications of fine grain OTN services that provide low bit rate, ultra-low latency connections with stable timing distribution.
- describe and compare the benefits of possible protocol combinations in aggregation and core networks including those using OTN switching and transport.
- describe and compare possible architectures for an optical transport network.
Number of modules: 5
Approximate study time: 7 hours
Download and view the course specification in Adobe PDF format
Delivery platform requirements:
To access the course, a computer/tablet running a browser such as Chrome, Safari, Edge etc. is required. The device should have an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024x768.
