Optical burst switching for the next generation Internet

Demands for network bandwidth increase daily. In order to meet our ever-increasing network bandwidth needs, one solution is to design and build the next generation Internet with an optical core infrastructure, with last connection provisioning time and unprecedented high data rates of 100 terabits per second and higher. An optical network is built by interconnecting various optical switches with wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) fibers, i.e., fibers that can simultaneously transmit data over different wavelengths. Many of today's commercial optical networks, however, do not utilize the WDM technology efficiently. With respect to the current state of the technology, an Optical Burst Switched (OBS) Network is one of the most promising all-optical architectures for the next generation Internet. It efficiently supports the transmission of bursty traffic over an all-optical infrastructure. OBS is still being developed and it has not been standardized yet. This article describes the main features of an OBS network, its benefits as well as its challenges.