This is the essential guide to the state of the art in WDM and its vast networking potential. As a result of its huge transmission capacity and countless other advantages, fiber optics has fostered a bandwidth revolution, addressing the constantly growing demand for increased bandwidth. Within this burgeoning area, Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) has emerged as a breakthrough technology for exploiting the capacity of optical fibers. Today, WDM is deployed by many network providers for point-to-point transmission - but there is strong momentum to develop it as a full - fledged networking technology in its own right. The telecommunications industry, network service providers, and research communities worldwide are paying close attention. "Optical WDM Networks" presents an easy-to-follow introduction to basic concepts, key issues, effective solutions, and state-of-the-art technologies for wavelength-routed WDM networks.Responding to the need for resources focused on the networking potential of WDM, the book is organized in terms of the most important networking aspects, such as: network control architecture; routing and wavelength assignment; virtual topology design and reconfiguration; distributed lightpath control and management; optical-layer protection and restoration; IP over WDM; and, trends for the future in optical networks. Each chapter includes examples and problems that illustrate and offer practical application of concepts, as well as extensive references for further reading. This is an essential resource for professionals and students in electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science as well as network engineers, designers, planners, operators, and managers who seek a backbone of knowledge in optical networks.