Experimental demonstration of software defined data center optical networks with Tbps end-to-end tunability

•SDN based end-to-end tunability solution is proposed for data center networks.•The protocol extension for Tbps transceiver tuning and BV-OXC tuning is proposed.•Flexi-grid optical networks with Tbps end-to-end tunability are online demonstrated.

The end-to-end tunability is important to provision elastic channel for the burst traffic of data center optical networks. Then, how to complete the end-to-end tunability based on elastic optical networks? Software defined networking (SDN) based end-to-end tunability solution is proposed for software defined data center optical networks, and the protocol extension and implementation procedure are designed accordingly. For the first time, the flexible grid all optical networks with Tbps end-to-end tunable transport and switch system have been online demonstrated for data center interconnection, which are controlled by OpenDayLight (ODL) based controller. The performance of the end-to-end tunable transport and switch system has been evaluated with wavelength number tuning, bit rate tuning, and transmit power tuning procedure.