  We discuss the main features of a new optical system capable of laser action:
the active complex optical network, or lasing network (LANER). The system is
experimentally realized with optical fibers linked each other with suitable
optical couplers and with one or more coherent optical amplifying sections. The
LANER displays a standard laser behavior: when the gain provided by the active
sections is high enough to overcome the losses a coherent emission is produced,
with a complicated intensity spectrum reflecting the structure of the network.
A simple linear theoretical description is introduced and discussed, showing
how the LANER can be considered as a generalization of the laser for a
complicated cavity represented by the network itself. The system can be mapped
to directed graphs and permits to disclosure the analogies with the problem of
quantum chaos on graphs. In the case the links are all integer multiples of the
same length, it is shown that the LANER framework corresponds to a lattice
problem, with the equivalence of the Brillouin zone with the cavity Free
Spectral Range. Experimental realizations of different configurations are
presented and examples of spectra are reported, in a phenomenological agreement
with the numerical findings of the theory.
