TOWARDS ALL-OPTICAL NETWORKING

The promise of optics is a flatter, less hierarchical network giving o perational advantages of simplified structure and reduced administrati ve load. Optics can offer optical transparent transport networks that mask the heterogeneity of the transported entities to users as well as to operator(s). A network outline for the year 2010 reveals transpare nt network partitions, where wavelength multiplexed multi-Gbit/s strea ms are routed through optical nodes to establish semipermanent paths. A novel, distributed, packet-based switching infrastructure is then ne eded to bridge the granularity disparity between customer access and c ore network. Wavelength and space-division multiplexing provide a firs t level of transparent optical paths as universal transport. Optical v irtual paths are bundled into transparent optical paths.