Demonstration of Multi-Tenant Optical Transport Network Slicing with T-API

Network slicing is crucial to meet the diverse requirements of modern telecommunication services. At the transport level, it enables the creation of dedicated virtual networks on a shared optical infrastructure, providing customized solutions for different service providers operating on this optical network. This paper explores the integration of optical transport network slicing using the Transport API (T-API) in a real-world optical network infrastructure. T-API increases the programmability of optical systems and improves flexibility and interoperability in network management. In particular, we demonstrate that the latest enhancements to T-API now enable straightforward partitioning of optical networks, helping service providers to manage their own slices independently without introducing added complexities. Our study showcases T-API’s effectiveness in a small-scale optical network, where customers can provide and tailor end-to-end connectivity services. This proof-of-concept highlights the potential of T-API to provide standardized, efficient, and scalable control of increasingly complex multi-tenant optical network resources.