This course presents recent achievements in key technologies and describes major directions in system architectures, network topologies, and network operation for local, regional and global photonic networks. Versatility and advantages of an optical communication infrastructure are shown. Worldwide activities in technology, architecture, modelling, and experiments of photonic networking are addressed. Please note that the lecture deals with networking aspects. The optical physical layer is treated in the english lectures: - 388.033 2008W VU Kommunikationsnetze, Vertiefung - 388.033 2009S VU Kommunikationsnetze, Vertiefung

With photonic networks a new, highly promising age of communication appears on the horizon. They exhibit novel properties like optical transparency over global distances, nearly unlimited transmission capacity, transmissions with extremely low bit-error rates and a hitherto unmatched flexibility in operation. A powerful, universal communication structure is developing.

Lecture notes for this course are available.