Abstract

Transmission of client traffic, e.g., Internet Protocol (IP) traffic, over an optical network can be achieved through a logical topology in the form of lightpaths. The client traffic can be circuit-based or packet-based of which a major source is the classic IP traffic. Recently, Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) brings the virtual circuit technology to the classic IP through the concept of Label Switched Path (LSP). In this paper, we focus on the transport of circuit-based traffic (named calls generically) over the logical topology in mesh optical networks. In our study, the network architecture is an optical network attached by a bunch of client nodes, as shown in Figure 1. The calls arrive and leave at the client nodes dynamically and generally have smaller bandwidth than that of a lightpath. The client node can request the optical network to set up or tear down a lightpath, or to groom the calls on existing lightpaths to their destination client node.

© 2002 Optical Society of America