Supporting Ethernet in optical-burst-switched networks

The reemergence of metropolitan area networks (MANs) is being stimulated by the continued growth of the Internet. Here we introduce the likely role that optical burst switching (OBS) will play in the development of 10-Gbit Ethernet (10GbE) metropolitan networks. Although the synchronous optical network (SONET) is being proposed to provide wide-area connectivity for 10GbE MANs, its synchronous time-division multiplexing (TDM) nature renders it inefficient for data-centric connections. OBS, however, provides a better sharing of network resources and when coupled with generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) provides a robust and more efficient transport for Ethernet services.