LSOM: A Link State protocol Over MAC addresses for metropolitan backbones using Optical Ethernet switches

This paper presents a new protocol named "Link State Over MAC" (LSOM) for Optical Ethernet switches to allow the use of active loop topologies, like meshes, in Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) or even Wide Area Networks (WAN) backbone. In this respect, LSOM is an alternative to a ring topology as proposed in draft IEEE 802.17 Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) or a tree topology using IEEE802. 1D Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP). LSOM provides higher scalability and is able to achieve better bandwidth utilization and lower latency than RSTP and RPR. Simulation results for 4-node and 9-node topologies show that LSOM can improve throughput over RPR by a factor of up to 1.7. Furthermore, full freedom to choose any MAN active topology allows an effective use of the available dark fiber resources.