You will learn fundamental knowledge about optical technologies and components of optical systems in association with components built into Cisco systems optical equipment. The students become familiar with building blocks of optical transmission systems as well as with optical characteristics of data transport. The course includes an overview of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) systems and their design. This course teaches the knowledge and skills needed to describe technology features used in designing and implementing optical networks. You learn how to design FlexSpectrum networks using the Cisco Transport Planner tool. You also learn how the WXC and SMR cards are designed, and you set up a three-node dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) ring, create simple DWDM optical circuits between nodes, and then create 10G transponder circuits using the 10x10 multiport cards. The course explains the difference between colored and colorless ports, whereby you install 40G transponder circuits using the colorless option. In addition, the course explores reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) and mesh configurations up to 16 degrees, including the option for omnidirectional, colourless and contention less add-drop. Furthermore, the course also explores methods for performance monitoring and troubleshooting the FlexSpectrum system.