Introduction

Our research aims to define the architecture of an optical layer, realized by deploying a multiwavelength mesh-connected optical network. The network offers lightpaths between pairs of network nodes. A lightpath is simply a high bandwidth pipe, carrying data at up to several gigabits/second. It is realized by using a wavelength on each link in a path between the two nodes in the network. Each link can carry several wavelengths, using optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). The new optical layer defined by these flexibly switchable lightpaths offers at least three benefits: (1) reduced processing load at the intermediate nodes by handling through traffic within the optical layer thus avoiding processing by the higher layers, for example ATM switches, (2) cost savings by creating many independent ``virtual fibers'' over one real fiber using WDM, and (3) providing paths that are just as protocol insensitive as if they were so many pure fiber paths. The architecture provides ways of making these lightpaths available through the upper layers of some preexisting protocol stack (e.g. ATM or TCP/IP) or directly to the user.

Relevant Publications

O. Gerstel, R. Ramaswami and G. H. Sasaki. Benefits of limited wavelength conversion in WDM ring networks. To appear in OFC'97. [PS version]
R. Ramaswami and G. H. Sasaki. Multiwavelength optical networks with limited wavelength conversion. To appear in Infocom'97. [PS version]
O. Gerstel, R. Ramaswami and G. H. Sasaki. Fault-tolerant multiwavelength optical networks with limited wavelength conversion. To appear in Infocom'97. [PS version]
O. Gerstel. On the future of wavelength routing networks. To appear in IEEE Network Magazine, November, 1996. [PS version]
O. Gerstel, G. H. Sasaki.and R. Ramaswami. Dynamic channel assignment for WDM optical networks with little or no wavelength conversion. To appear in Allerton'96. [PS version]
O. Gerstel and S. Kutten. Dynamic wavelength allocation in WDM ring networks. IBM Research Report RC 20462, May'96. [PS version]
A more accurate abbreviated version has been submitted to ICC'97 [PS version]
O. Gerstel, P. E. Green and R. Ramaswami. Architecture for an optical network layer. Working Paper. [PS version]
R. Ramaswami. Multiwavelength Optical Network Architecture. Tutorial at OFC'96. [PS version]
R. Ramaswami and A. Segall. Distributed network control for optical networks. Submitted to IEEE/ACM Trans. on Networking. [Abstract] [PS version]
R. Ramaswami and A. Segall. Distributed network control for wavelength-routed optical networks. Proc. of Infocom'96 . (28 pages) [Abstract] [PS version]
R. Ramaswami and K. N. Sivarajan. Routing and wavelength assignment in all-optical networks. IEEE/ACM Trans. on Networking . (25 pages) [Abstract] [PS version]
R. Ramaswami and K. N. Sivarajan. Design of logical topologies for wavelength routed optical networks Proc. Infocom'95; To appear in IEEE JSAC/JLT , 1996. (23 pages) [Abstract] [PS version]
P. Raghavan and E. Upfal. Efficient Routing in All-Optical Networks Proceedings of the 26th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, 134--143, 1994. [Abstract] [PS version]
A. Aggarwal et al. Efficient routing in optical networks. Proc. ACM SODA'94; Submitted to J. ACM , 1994 (24 pages) [Abstract] [PS version]
A. Birman. Computing approximate blocking probabilities for a class of all-optical networks. Proc. Infocom'95; To appear in IEEE JSAC/JLT , 1996 [Abstract] [PS version]
A. Birman and A. Kershenbaum. Routing and wavelength assignment methods in single-hop all-optical networks with blocking. Proc. Infocom'95 , 1995 [Abstract] [PS version]