Propagation of all-optical crosstalk attack in transparent optical networks

Transparent optical network (TON) is now rapidly booming to be popular, and a threat of an all-optical crosstalk attack with high power will emerge. In this paper, the penalty of crosstalk attack propagation, including intrachannel crosstalk inside the optical cross-connects, as well as direct and indirect interchannel crosstalk within fibers, is evaluated. Our work has proved that these crosstalk attacks do propagate in the TON but with limited propagation stages, which will be useful for the planning, management, and design of TON.