Where is optical networking headed? Packet switching and the Internet Protocol made distance irrelevant when it came to sharing commerce, information, and entertainment across the Internet. For the first time, everyone with access to the Internet could communicate over the global public telephone network supporting a new carrier business model based on the differentiation of service as opposed to the duration of connections or their distances.

Beginning with revolutionary technological advances in integrated all-optical wavelength conversion, wavelength-routing, photonic switching, and tunable ultra long-haul DWDM transmission, the same will happen with optical networks. Today the new unit of bandwidth is the wavelength, tomorrow it will be the optical packet. The new backbone transport network carrying these wavelengths and optical packets will be the all-optical mesh network. Several revolutionary breakthroughs in technology are required to make all-optical mesh networks a reality. Luxcore will take the first step toward delivering on the promise of the Optical Internet by bringing to the market the first fully transparent optical switching system with all-optical wavelength conversion and integrated, tunable DWDM transport capabilities.

Today, all DWDM optical backbone transport networks are in reality point-to-point networks. As a result, Internet traffic traversing today's backbone networks are subject to hundreds of opto-electrical conversions and electrical regenerations. These opto-electrical conversions and electrical regenerations make end-to-end wavelength-routing and instant provisioning of new bandwidth, protection and restoration, new protocols and bit-rates very difficult and costly.

In the near future, LANs will connect directly to this new all-optical mesh network ¾ the Optical Internet. Photonic switching will integrate with DWDM transmission. There will be no OEO conversions or electrical regeneration for thousands of kilometers. Software will allow end-users to provision and manage their own services. Carriers will have the capability to profitably turn raw fiber-optic capacity into maximum usable bandwidth, on-demand anywhere in the network at the lowest cost per managed bit.

Why all-optical networking? Removal of OEO conversions and regenerations are the only real way to lower capital and operating expenditures by an order of magnitude. The elimination of OEO-based transponders, regenerators and intermediate transceivers results in all-optical networks that are bit-rate, data format and protocol independent. Adding additional protocols, new data formats and protocols are as simple as adding a new software package. No longer will hardware forklift upgrades be necessary.

What is wavelength-routing? Wavelength-routing is the ability to create and provision any number of individual wavelength paths throughout an optical backbone transport network, on-demand, with the instantaneous ability to change transport wavelengths between any numbers of nodes along the path. Wavelength-routing decisions are made by algorithms and events that account for numerous variables and data points that are collected, managed and distributed to other network elements and the network management system by the optical performance monitors of each photonic switch. An example of a network event that would trigger an all-optical wavelength-conversion is a blocking condition where two wavelengths of the same frequency on two input fibers are competing for the same output fiber. With Internet traffic growing at 100-200 percent per year and 80 percent of all Internet traffic being switched across backbone transport networks, in the near term it will be impossible to plan a single, continuous wavelength frequency across a backbone network without months of planning and rearrangements.

Wavelength-routing is necessary to efficiently manage fiber-optic capacity as hundreds of wavelengths are being added to backbone transport networks along with optical switches and dynamic optical add-drop multiplexers and provisioning cycles get shorter.

Applications for Luxcore's advanced photonic switching system for backbone transport networks will include:

• Wavelength-routing including wavelength reuse, broadcast and multicast features
  

• Wavelength management




• Optical mesh networking




• Optical cross-connect switching
  

• Dynamic, optical add-drop multiplexing
  

• ULH, high-capacity transport

Features will include:

• Support for varying degrees of restoration and protection (QoS)
  

• Transport and switching capabilities are tunable
  

• Real-time optical performance monitoring for added wavelength-routing capabilities (CoS, ToS)
  

• Multifunction optical network element combining wavelength-routing, photonic switching, add-drop multiplexing and DWDM transport capabilities in a single network element.

Technology Advances (Enablers) will include:

• Tunable, all-optical wavelength-conversion
  

• Tunable, wavelength-selective switching subsystem
  

• Tunable, DWDM multiplexing
  

• Tunable, ULH DWDM transport
  

• Layer-3 IP routing software intelligence

Wavelength-routing and all-optical wavelength-conversion are just the beginning. Breakthroughs are coming in optical burst switching and optical packet switching to further increase the efficiency of optical bandwidth. The third generation of all-optical networking is upon us and Luxcore is defining it and leading the race to make the Optical Internet a reality.

Gerald Ramdeen, CEO/CTO