Gnpy

Hailing from the sunny Bordeaux, France, where ECOC 2021 is taking place, here's a new version of GNPy, an optical route planning library.

Released just three months after the v2.3, we've improved support of OpenROADM networks, fixed bugs, and extended our test suite. As was
previously announced, this is also the first release to require a more recent Python, the 3.8.

If you're interested in what's coming next, be sure to check the [patches and changes that we are currently working on](https://review.gerrithub.io/q/project:Telecominfraproject/oopt-gnpy).

Hello from the virtual OFC'2021. A fresh release of GNPy, a transmission quality estimator for DWDM optical networks, is here.

In this release, we added support for modeling of OpenROADM networks. Example:

console-session
gnpy-transmission-example \
-e gnpy/example-data/eqpt_config_openroadm.json \
gnpy/example-data/Sweden_OpenROADM_example_network.json


We have improved our documentation, so that it is hopefully easier to navigate and covers more advanced topics. We've also extended the docs with information targeted at vendors (or others) who are willing to contribute equipment datasheets to GNPy.

ROADMs can now specify different target per-channel launch powers for different directions (degrees). We've also fixed various bugs; please refer to the git changelog for a detailed list.

Internally, we've extended the test coverage of our code base, improved the CI infrastructure, and addressed some technical debt. However, we've grown limited by supporting Python 3.6, so this is the last release which works with that version. The next release will require Python 3.8.

There's much more brewing in our development branches, so I'm already looking forward to the next release. Take a look behind the curtain:

https://review.gerrithub.io/q/project:Telecominfraproject/oopt-gnpy

There are many user-facing changes in this release. We've changed the way how examples and default data are shipped:

- `examples/transmission_main_example.py` is replaced by `gnpy-transmission-example`
- `examples/path_requests_run.py` is replaced by `gnpy-path-request`
- Default example data, such as the equipment library, the CORONET sample topology, etc, are now shipped as a part of the Python library. You can request their location by running `gnpy-example-data`.
- There's a new tool for converting XLS data into JSON: `gnpy-convert-xls`.

The installation process got much easier, it should be enough to just run `pip install gnpy` once you've installed your Python 3.6 (or newer).

For those who use GNPy as a Python library, there were many changes as we have moved different parts of code to better places. We no longer put everything into the `gnpy.core.*` Python module hierarchy, now there is:

- [`gnpy.core`](https://gnpy.readthedocs.io/en/master/gnpy-api-core.html) which implements signal propagation,
- [`gnpy.topology`](https://gnpy.readthedocs.io/en/master/gnpy-api-topology.html) tracks requests for spectrum,
- [`gnpy.tools`](https://gnpy.readthedocs.io/en/master/gnpy-api-tools.html) provides miscellaneous tools for, e.g., dealing with JSON I/O, XLS parsing, as well as the example frontends.

GNPy now also tracks chromatic dispersion (CD) and polarization mode dispersion (PMD) of a signal as it propagates through fiber and all active nodes.

Under the hood, we've adjusted our development process a bit. We are using [Gerrit (via GerritHub.io)](https://review.gerrithub.io/p/Telecominfraproject/oopt-gnpy/+/dashboard/main:main) for code review, and [Zuul (via VexxHost)](https://zuul.vexxhost.dev/t/TelecomInfraProject/status) for Continuous Integration (CI).

A highlight of this release is spectrum allocation tracking and the associated fixes and features.

Released not that long after ECOC'19, this release brings in bugfixes and usability improvements. It also paves the way towards enabling using GNPy as a backend for path feasibility computation.

You can see where we are going at the ONF booth at the conference venue.

Highlights of this release include:

- Raman amplification and SRS simulation
- [Fresh and automated Docker images](https://hub.docker.com/r/telecominfraproject/oopt-gnpy)
- Many bugfixes, docs improvements, refactoring and internal
improvements

Enjoy!

Jan