This thesis will describe a number of concepts and ideas concerned with Advanced Telecommunication Networks. The thesis starts with an introduction where the convergence of the consumer electronics, media, computing and telecommunication network technology industries is summarised. We discuss the services that a (future) telecommunication infrastructure may offer and some of the many challenges that this could foretell. The remainder of the thesis is made up of three parts. The first will deal with the implementation of photonic networks. This section includes both a review and summary of the performance characteristics of the enabling technologies as well as a discussion of some of the key aspects of implementing optical transmission systems. The second part of the thesis concerns itself with optical network architectures. A novel (patented) All Optical Network (AON) architecture is proposed and analysed. In the final part of the thesis we discuss network control and management. An original means of admission flow control based on dynamic charging is proposed and analysed. The thesis concludes with a summary of the overall conclusions made from the work and analysis described in each of the three parts of thesis. The three parts and the individual chapters that constitute them are designed to be individually readable. Each will comprise a section summarising the implications and conclusions made from the analysis and results presented in the various chapters.