In this paper, we introduce deflection routing for irregular meshed networks in an optical packet based environment. By using the MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) control plane to manage the deflected paths, we offer a relatively simple way of controlling the otherwise complicated deflected paths. This is beneficial due to the way it simplifies the optical packet switch so it only needs to deal with simple forwarding and thereby relaxing the need for buffering. The latter is becoming increasingly more important in optical networks since there is no practical optical memory insight for the near future. By introducing deflection routing along with statistical wavelength multiplexing, the need for buffers is greatly reduced while the network resources are better utilized. MPLS is emerging as a main protocol for future networks, whether being based on packet switched or circuit switched technology, hence rendering this approach to be compatible with most modern and future systems.

Date Published: 17 October 2001
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 4585, Optical Networking, (17 October 2001);

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4585:
Optical Networking
Chunming Qiao; Shizhong Xie, Editor(s)