ABSTRACT
New enterprise applications and explosive data traffic growth are now demanding line rates that previously were only available in the optical core of long-haul backbone networks. Coupled with these new line rates has been an equally dramatic increase in the number and variety of optical services. To meet this emerging market, service providers have started to deploy overlay networks, but at a large capital and operational cost. Service providers need to evolve their current networks in order to fully capitalize on these new service opportunities. This chapter discusses the new service drivers and proposes an architectural solution that transforms the current optical transport network into an optical broadband services (OBS) network. The OBS network’s objective is the creation of an increasingly cost-effective infrastructure that allows carriers to better align their capital and operational expenses with their service revenues.
