Allegro

ALLEGRO aims at designing and validating a novel end-to-end sliceable, reliable, and secure architecture for next-generation optical networks, achieving high transmission/switching capacity

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About ALLEGRO ‘Agile ultra low energy secure networks’

ALLEGRO aims at designing and validating a novel end-to-end sliceable, reliable, and secure architecture for next-generation optical networks, achieving high transmission/switching capacity

  • with 10 Tb/s for optoelectronic devices and 1 Pbt/s for optical fiber systems
  • low power consumption/cost
  • with > 25% savings
  • and secure infrastructures and data transfers.

The architecture relies on key enabling innovations:

  1. smart, coherent transceivers exploiting multi-band & multi-fiber technologies for P2P and P2MP applications, based on e.g., high-speed plasmonic modulators/photodetectors and programmable silicon photonic integrated waveguide meshes;
  2. loss-less, energy-efficient transparent photonic integrated optical switches, eliminating OEO conversions, e.g., with on-chip amplification in the O-band for datacom applications;
  3. a consistent approach to security, in terms of functional/ protocol architectures and communications, further improving QKD systems, enabling optical channel co-existence and researching on quantum-resistant (post-quantum) cryptography, developing systems based on physically unclonable functions; and
  4. a scalable AI/ML assisted control and orchestration system, responsible for autonomous networking, dynamic and constrained service provisioning, function placement and resource allocation, leveraging devices increasing programmability and overall network softwarization.

      To achieve the target objectives and KPIs, ALLEGRO has defined a clear methodology ending in ambitious demonstrators. The consortium includes a good balance of industry and research/academia with know-how in complementary fields.

      The results of ALLEGRO will be disseminated in leading conferences, events, and high-impact journals. They will have a concrete and measurable economic and social impact, contributing towards achieving key European objectives, reinforcing European leadership and digital sovereignty in the ongoing digital and green transition.

      Project News

      New Article: Integrating CV-QKD in Flexible Optical Networks

      Nov 10, 2025

      We are pleased to announce our publication:Michela Svaluto Moreolo, Masab Iqbal, Arturo Villegas, Ramon Casellas, Laia Nadal Reixats & Raul Muñoz,“Continuous Variable QKD in Flexible Optical Networks for Future Quantum Secure Connectivity,” J. Opt. Commun. Netw.,...

      New Publication: SDN Control of Photonic Chips via OpenROADM

      Nov 7, 2025

      We are pleased to announce our contribution at ONDM 2025:M. Lawson, B. Ali, N. Sambo, A. Sgambelluri, M. Ali, M. Svaluto Moreolo, R. Casellas, A. Santome & A. Giorgetti“On the SDN Control of Photonic Chips: Implementation on OpenROADM with Filtering for S-BVT”🔗...

      New Article: SDN Control of Multi-Band over SDM Optical Networks

      Nov 6, 2025

      We are proud to announce our latest publication in J. Opt. Commun. Netw.:R. Casellas, R. Martínez, R. Vilalta & R. Muñoz“An Overview of SDN Control of Multi-Band over SDM Optical Networks with Physical Layer Impairments,” Vol. 17, Issue 2, pp. A165-A177 (2025).🔗...

      New Publication: Coherent Optical Transmission for RANs

      Nov 5, 2025

      We are proud to present our new paper:Antonio Tartaglia, Antonio Napoli, Kevin Affolter, Fabio Cavaliere, Stefan Dahlfort, Roberto Magri, Marco Distefano, David Hillerkuss & Alfredo Palagi“Perspectives for Coherent Optical Transmission in Radio Access Networks.”🔗...