Research and development on optical wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks have matured considerably. While optics and electronics should be used appropriately for transmission and switching hardware, note that "intelligence'' in any network comes from "software,'' for network control, management, signaling, traffic engineering, network planning, etc.The role of software in creating powerful network architectures for optical WDM networks is emphasized.
Optical WDM Networks is a textbook for graduate level courses. Its focus is on the networking aspects of optical networking, but it also includes coverage of physical layers in optical networks. The author introduces WDM and its enabling technologies and discusses WDM local, access, metro, and long-haul network architectures. Each chapter is self-contained, has problems at the end of each chapter, and the material is organized for self study as well as classroom use. The material is the most recent and timely in capturing the state-of-the-art in the fast-moving field of optical WDM networking.

Optical Networking: Principles and Challenges.- Enabling Technologies: Building Blocks.- Local, Access, and Metro Networks.- Single-Hop Networks.- Multihop Networks.- Optical Access Networks.- Optical Metro Networks.- Wavelength-Routed (Wide-Area) Optical Networks.- Routing and Wavelength Assignment.- Elements of Virtual-Topology Design.- Advanced Topics in Virtual-Topology Optimization.- Wavelength Conversion.- Survivable WDM Networks.- Light-Tree: Optical Multicasting.- Traffic Grooming.- Advanced Topics in Traffic Grooming.- All-Optical Impairment-Aware Routing.- Network Control and Management.- Optical Packet Switching (OPS).- Optical Burst Switching (OBS).