Can software-defined networks turn impractical optical functionalities into network-savers?

Despite a long history of research into advanced optical functionalities, they have seen little use in practical networks, chiefly because they seldom fit in with existing network paradigms, especially under nonideal conditions. Software-defined networks, on the other hand, aim at expressing complex network architectures in a simpler way. We seek to determine if such an approach can help design networks that fully use the potential of optical functionalities and, if so, to quantify their benefits.