Alternatives for the introduction of optical packet switching networks in this internet world

With the emergence of new services mixing data, voice and video, the expected increase of the traffic volume together with the modification of its profile creates a need for a high throughput multimedia network. In addition, quality-of-service (QoS) management is currently widely debated at the convergence between ATM and IP communities. In the meantime, WDM is widely deployed, giving access to large transport capacities together with a new dimension for routing purposes. This paper presents alternatives for a multi-service optical network infrastructure in this Internet world, where WDM is used not only to increase the throughput but also to differentiate the traffic, to alleviate contention issues and to provide cost-effective solutions. On the same optical infrastructure under a self-sufficient management system, would coexist different logical sub-networks where different routing techniques are used (connection-oriented and connectionless) according to QoS (delay and loss-rate sensitivity) and client protocol (IP, ATM, SONET) requirements. The main objective is to save on the transport cost by optimising through packet switching techniques the resource utilisation according to traffic characteristics, while providing enough flexibility to adapt the resources to the evolution of the demand, and maintaining a high transmission quality, as provided by SONET today. This work capitalises on InP-based fast optical switching technologies demonstrated within the European ACTS KEOPS project. In this paper, the network concepts, packet format considerations, preferred routing techniques and system architecture will be reported and illustrated through physical and logical analysis. Finally, t <o introduction scenario will be presented: one for the backbone and one for the metro.