The CHRON project proposes a Cognitive Heterogeneous Reconfigurable Optical Network, which observes, acts, learns and optimizes its performance, taking into account its high degree of heterogeneity with respect to QoS, transmission and switching techniques.
The aim of CHRON is to develop and showcase a network architecture and a control plane which efficiently use resources in order to minimize CAPEX and OPEX while fulfilling QoS requirements of each type of service and application supported by the network in terms of bandwidth, delay and quality of transmission, and reducing energy consumption. Therefore, the Cognitive Heterogeneous Reconfigurable Optical Network must be able to provide effective decisions on:

• how to route traffic, either through existing lightpaths, new lightpaths or triggering a reconfiguration process of the virtual topology;
• how to assign resources, not only wavelengths, but also the most appropriate transmission/switching technique, optical launch power, modulation format, bit-rate, etc., thus relaying in cross-layer design techniques;
• which elements should be powered on/off and when.

The CHRON project is funded by the European Commission in the Seventh Framework Programme, under the Objective 1.1 The Network of the Future (FP7-ICT-2009-5).