A Full Featured and Lightweight Control for Optical Packet Metro Networks

Metro networks support increasing traffic volumes and evolving traffic profiles. Revisiting metro networks architecture, optical packet rings with POADM features are proposed in order to support both optical transparency and sub-wavelength granularity. A MAC structure for multiring POADM networks is proposed, that can support multiprotocol encapsulation and provides the support of differentiated QoS and differentiated protection on a per flow basis. Unicast and multicast flows are efficiently transported between stations, with a lightweight control within each station. An opportunistic insertion process associated with an appropriate scheduling process is shown to ensure transport network QoS levels. Simple models are provided to assess the transfer performance on the POADM ring. Per-flow protection mechanisms are proposed and their efficiency is assessed. Dimensioning costs are derived, that take into account the number of used wavelengths and the number of fixed receivers required to support a given traffic matrix. Finally, the paper shows that POADM rings can be used to directly support Metro Ethernet services and thus allow collapsing transport network layers.