Optical/packet transport convergence

Today's optical networks are designed to carry fixed-rate telephony and private line traffic in a reliable and resilient manner. Over the last decade, service providers have experienced tremendous growth in data services with the aggregate demand for data traffic now exceeding circuit-oriented traffic. As a result, service providers are challenged to bring their cost structure down so they can generate sustainable margins on competitive services. Lowering the cost structure of data services involves a reduction in capital expenditures, but even more importantly, it necessitates a reduction in operational expenses as well. Global optical/packet transport systems, such as Lucent Technologies' Universal Packet Mux (UPM), are among the network elements addressing this need. They integrate classical synchronous optical network/synchronous digital hierarchy (SONET/SDH) capabilities with multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) transport features on one platform. These new devices can support either connection-oriented or connectionless transport services. This paper describes the applications and value of a new type of universal packet transport system (UPT) for optical/packet networks.