As DWDM transceiver
costs decline and PIC component integration becomes more commonplace, this approach
opens up the very real possibility of Ethernet scaling to unprecedented terabit rates. These
issues will be closely studied in the relevant standards bodies in the coming decade.
New Control Protocol Frameworks
Although GMPLS optical control standards have been available for several years
now, overall market traction has been slow. For example, very few equipment vendors
fully support GMPLS in their product lines today, and most DWDM ROADM
and DCS/MSPP systems still use centralized TL1 management (because of the strong
SONET/SDH influence). A key reason here has been the lack of demand for highly
dynamic wavelength-rate services. However, it is expected that continued growth in
high-end EPL services will inevitably drive the adoption of this framework. In particular,
GMPLS offers much promise in provisioning multiple service tiers for lightpath
connections (see Optical Network Control).
Recently, there has also been some activity in the IETF to extend the GMPLS control
plane for point-to-point Ethernet label switching [16]. By and large, this draft focuses
on adapting GMPLS protocols for the Ethernet layer and details various Layer 2 issues,
such as label encapsulation in Ethernet frames and data plane modifications.
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