Towards a Novel Optical Access Networks Management Solution: Addressing General Management Complexity

Past technological advances and an increasing need to communicate have led to the creation of the current telecommunications networks. A critical part of a telecommunications network is the access network, since it must bridge the clients with the services provided, ensuring an efficient connection between them. In the last few years, both governments and organizations from several countries have adopted large fiber optics implementations in their access networks, given its broadband capabilities. However, the structure of such networks can become very complex, forcing organizations to use means that allow them to efficiently manage such complexity. Several software solutions available on the market are capable of providing management features for these networks, but the complexity of these solutions can negatively affect management, making it lengthy and error-prone. In this paper, we describe the initial development of a software solution, consisting of a set of integrated tools that will make optical access networks management more efficient by addressing the complexity limitations of the current solutions. One of the tools, presented in this paper, was tested with a local ISP (Internet Service Provider) and showed to be capable of overcoming the limitations faced by the organization on managing their optical access network.