The Economics of using IP over OTN in Core Networks

Inhalt:
Large scale service provider network architectures are hierarchical with the network equipment providing key specialized functions: WDM transport, OTN switching, MPLS switching and IP routing. Network costs, measured by processing complexity and the power consumption for each unit of bandwidth delivered increases as one moves up the stack. The operational cost for power, heat dissipation, and photonic switching on a cost per bit basis is much lower for WDM transport than for higher layers. This paper looks at two real-life topologies comparing IP over WDM (IPoWDM) and IP over OTN (IPoOTN) designs for core networks.