This course will present recent advances in the field of optical networking and protocols and their corresponding impact on communication systems in terms of bandwidth usage and efficiency. It will incorporate the advantages of optical networks for telecommunication systems and various architectures over copper transmission systems.Topics include WDM optical networks with their evolution, construction, broadcast, wavelength routed optical WDM network, current challenges of optical WDM network, SONET/SDH, fault management in SONET/SDH, framing techniques, traffic grooming, multiple access protocols, virtual topology design, routing and wavelength assignment, protection and restoration, and optical packet switching.