Enabling Optical Network Test Bed for 5G Tests

In this work, we show some experimental approaches concerning optical network design dedicated to 5G infrastructures. In particular, we show some implementations of network slicing based on Carrier Ethernet forwarding, which will be very suitable in the context of 5G heterogeneous networks, especially looking at services for vertical enterprises. We also show how to adopt a central unit (orchestrator) to automatically manage such logical paths according to quality-of-service requirements, which can be monitored at the user location. We also illustrate how novel all-optical processes, such as the ones based on all-optical wavelength conversion, can be used for multicasting, enabling development of TV broadcasting based on 4G–5G terminals. These managing and forwarding techniques, operating on optical links, are tested in a wireless environment on Wi-Fi cells and emulating LTE and WiMAX systems by means of the NS-3 code.