A study of GMPLS control architecture in photonic IP networks

We propose a hybrid network architecture, called the "photonic IP network architecture," combining optical switches and packet switches to accommodate the huge amounts of Internet traffic. In a photonic IP network, these two switching functions are optimally chosen according to the network status to manage a network efficiently and flexibly. The operation requires signaling to establish optical/label paths and a route modification method. We propose a method of route modification that provides batch modification and avoids packet loss. We have verified our proposed architecture with a prototype system implemented on FreeBSD.