Metropolitan area network architecture for optical flow switching

In this work, we provide design concepts of efficient physical and lightpath topology architectures for a LAN/MAN all-optical network that support Optical Flow Switching. We found good architectures are coupled intimately with media access control protocol designs and must be optimized jointly. Two architectures that represent extreme cases were examined: Quasi-Static Architecture and Dynamic Per Flow Routing Architecture. The performance and costs are compared to provide an economical architecture design.