Modular Design of Programmable Multi-Granular Optical Switching Node

This paper presents a novel architecture to support modular design of multi-granular optical router able to manage multi-service traffic according to the Quality-of-Service (QoS) needs in future optical networks. The programmable modular approach, based on recent IETF standards, allows hardware and vendor independent modules’ implementation which leads to the design of open platforms. A switching matrix which employs fast and slow optical switching devices to obtain scalable and cost-effective network is considered as a case study and evaluated. Performance evaluation with reference to an Optical Burst Switched scenario is presented to show the flexibility and the effectiveness of the approach. Future work based on software-based implementation of the programmable optical router concept is introduced and outlined as feasible.