By 2020 there will be 50 billion connected devices over the Internet. With the fast-increasing data traffic demand in both fixed and mobile networks, network operators need to migrate networks towards next generation solutions. The network migration requires the enormous investment in equipment and infrastructure, while the revenues are not expected to grow significantly. Therefore, one of the main challenges for network operators is to find out a proper cost-effective optical network solution that can match future high capacity demand and flexibly support multiple network services on a common network infrastructure. The first part of the thesis addresses the Active Optical Network (AON) and its migration strategies towards Next Generation Optical Access (NGOA) solutions. Several migration strategies are proposed from the perspective of network topology, data plane and control plane. A general methodology for Techno-Economic analysis has been developed and applied to the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculation of different NGOA solutions. The thesis provides a complete cost evaluation of AON migration paths, which can be used by network operators to assess the economic feasibility of network migration. A converged Optical Transport Network (OTN) that can serve both fixed and mobile network services is beneficial from the cost-saving perspective. However, the different types of services, require different network performance. The second part of the thesis focuses on the investigation of the converged OTN that can be flexibly and timely adjusted to satisfy varying service conditions. A programmable OTN featured with Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) in the data plane and Software Defined Networking (SDN) in control plane has been proposed. To demonstrate the benefits of the converged OTN, the thesis also provides a multi-domain orchestration architecture for the multiple network services.  The resource orchestration, across three network domains: OTN, mobile network and cloud, enables agile service creation and optimized resource allocation among the multiple domains. / <p>QC 20170512</p>

[pt] Para suportar os requisitos das redes móveis de 5a geração (5G), os sistemas de comunicação óptica serão usados nas redes de acesso. Isso ocorre porque a evolução das RAN (Radio Access Networks) incluem a centralização do equipamento mais crítico para implantar pontos de acesso móveis de baixa potência, como DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems) e Small Cells. Os serviços emergentes solicitam a implantação de tecnologias de rádio sobre fibra com ênfase na eficiência de largura de banda, eficiência energética e alta confiabilidade. Neste âmbito, um monitoramento eficiente da camada física é imperativo para a operação dessas redes. O sistema de monitoramento deve fornecer uma localização de falhas em serviço, econômico, centralizado e com impacto mínimo para a transmissão de dados. Esta tese propõe vários sistemas de monitoramento incorporado no transceptor utilizando reflectometria óptica no domínio do tempo. Os sistemas de monitoramento são testados em diferentes sistemas de transmissão de dados e arquiteturas de rede, onde é apresentada uma validação simulada e outras experimentais. / [en] In order to support the requirements for 5th generation mobile networks (5G), optical communication systems will be used in the access part of the network. This is because the evolution of radio access networks includes the centralization of the most critical equipment in order to deploy low power mobile access points, like distributed antenna systems and small cells. The emerging services call for the deployment of radio over fibre technologies with emphasis on bandwidth efficiency, energy efficiency and high reliability. Within this scope, an efficient monitoring of the physical layer would become essential for the operation of these networks. The monitoring system should provide in-service, cost efficient and centralized fault localization with minimum impact on data transmission. This thesis proposes several transceiver-embedded optical time domain reflectometry monitoring systems. The monitoring systems are tested over different data transmission systems and network architectures, where one architecture was simulated and several others experimentally validated.