The Digital Signal Processing (DSP) group of the Photonic Networks and Systems department at Fraunhofer HHI will present the results of the EU project SEASON at the upcoming Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) in Los Angeles in March 2026. OFC is one of the world's largest and most prestigious international conferences in the field of optical communications and networks.
The final demonstration was organized by the DSP group and carried out in the laboratory infrastructure of the Photonic Networks and Systems department – in close cooperation with the academic and industrial partners of the SEASON consortium. In addition to Fraunhofer HHI, the SEASON consortium includes major European telecommunications providers such as Telefonica and TIM, vendors such as ADVA, Infinera P/G, and Ericsson, three consolidated small and medium-sized enterprises (Accelleran, Wings, and WestAquila), and renowned research centers and scientific institutions such as CNIT, CTTC, and UPC.
The accepted paper to be presented at OFC is titled:
Demonstration of Self-Healing in IPoWDM Network with Dual Protection Using MultiBand over Space Division Multiplexing (MBoSDM) and NetDevOps Solutions in Support of 6G
The demonstration shows an autonomous, self-healing IPoWDM network based on MBoSDM, which enables rapid service restoration through NetDevOps-based automation and dual protection mechanisms. A “self-healing” network automatically detects faults and independently restores connections – similar to a navigation system that immediately calculates an alternative route when a road is blocked. This validates key technical results within the SEASON project, including:
• Integration of the data and control components developed as part of the SEASON project.
• Service provisioning and restoration times measured of less than 90 seconds in HHI's test environment.
• Handling of multiple simultaneous network failures using the proposed control component.
SEASON is an SNS project under Horizon Europe (G.A. 101096120). The aim of the project is to develop, implement, and validate an energy-efficient and resilient next-generation optical network architecture. It uses advanced spatial and multiband transmission technologies, software-defined networks, and end-to-end orchestration to support services beyond 5G and 6G.
Further information on the SEASON project and its activities can be found on the project website and on the corresponding LinkedIn channel.