An intra- and inter-domain routing architecture for optical burst switched (OBS) networks

We describe an intra- and inter-domain routing architecture for just-in-time (JIT) optical burst switched (OBS) networks. The architecture addresses the problem of routing optical signals of varying types across an all-optical burst-switched backbone network while maintaining the optical signal quality required by each application. The architecture distinguishes between routing for bursts and ancillary signaling messages ("data plane routing"), and routing for other management and control messages ("control plane routing").