e-Photon/ONe is a Network of Excellence, started from the first Call of FP6 IST, and led by Politecnico di Torino. Its overall goal is to defragment the rich know-how available in the European research institutes in the area of optical networks and enabling techniques, by fostering exchange of know-how, mobility of researchers, joint projects, seminars, etc. The NoE is composed of 40 partners, being academic institutes, industrial research groups, and operator research groups. The vast majority is located in Western Europe; from the NMS/ACC, there are only TELFER (University of Zagreb, Croatia), Budapest University (Hungary), Akademia Gorniczo-Hutnicza (Poland), and Bilkent University (Turkey).

e-Photon/ONe encompasses the whole hierarchical range of optical networks, in 5 thematic so-called Virtual Departments (VDs), and 4 Joint Projects (JPs). Among those is the VD2 ‘Metro and Access Networks: Technologies, Architectures and Protocols’, led by Telenor, and the JP2 ‘Dynamically reconfigurable optical access networks’, led by TUE. These two are gathering and producing a wealth of information, which will be extremely valuable for dissemination to the NMS/ACC in BReATH. Furthermore, e-Photon/ONe will be a platform for consensus building from which quite relevant general guidelines can be communicated to the NMS/ACC; in return, e-Photon/ONe will benefit from the deep insights into the NMS/ACC special situations as to be explored in BReATH.