Abstract

The wavelength-routed networks have become an increasingly popular infrastructure for IP net work applications involving high-bit rates and capacity-on-demand. These applications include the capacity enhancement of an already existing physical connectivity between a pair of IP routers and/or connectivity changes between two non-neighbouring IP routers within a single administrative area. As recognised by the most standardisation bodies, e.g., IETF, OIF, ITU-T, for these applications, the circuit-switched, wavelength-routed infrastructure is mostly suitable for its simplicity, maturity of technology and cost. To support connections routing and switching, much of the current research and standardisation efforts are focusing on a timely connection set-up within the optical layer, by defining the control plane mechanisms and relevant network model interfaces, such as optical user-to-network interface (oUNI).¹ Yet, the topics related to inter-provider-provisioning critical for end-to-end optical path set-up along concatenated domains of different optical network service providers (oNSP), i.e., multi-provider optical network architectures, have still not gained enough attention.

© 2002 Optical Society of America