Transparent Optical Backbone Network Specification AS5659/1

This document provides a specification for the WDM Optical Backbone Network (OBN) within the SAE AS5659 WDM LAN specifications document family. The specification applies to any optical network which uses Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) in any optical media, and describes a transparent optical network that contains optical components (i.e. without Optical-to-Electrical conversion). The specification describes optical network elements (ONE) that perform optical transport, optical add/drop, optical amplification, optical routing, and optical switching functions. Performance limits are given for conforming optical signal interfaces and transfer functions for the ONEs, as well as architectures comprising combinations of them. This specification will enable network and systems engineers to design and use scalable and upgradable WDM based optical networks aboard mobile platforms.