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** Disclaimer; I work for a vendor: PLURIS, but this question concerns a personal curiosity that I have about OXCs. ** ------------------------------------------------ There has been a lot of work going on about how to utilize OXCs in an internetwork at both OIF and ODSI (and some IDs in IETF). A couple of themes have been emerging: 1. Use the OXCs to set up paths akin to MPLS LSPs. This is great for providers that have MPLS, but what about pure IP-based backbones. 2. Decide which routers connect with what other routers (within the same domain) using configuration. Then use signaling to create circuits between the routers to connect them. I would like to hear about what people are thinking about OXCs, how they are intending on utilizing them, what functionality to they expect from their routers. Let me put in my two cents worth: --------------------------------------------- It is hard not to think of the OXC-based circuit model as another overlay network, but it brings distinct provisioning advantages in terms of speed and flexibility. There apparently are some cost advantages as well. On the other hand, the OXC based optical network is a change in some manner from a converged IP over optical network architecture where IP routers plug directly into DWDMs and have enough ports to handle all of the traffic. For NSPs that have already an MPLS or ATM solution, an OXC-based circuit switched model is not a big leap, but for all IP shops it is. I also don't see much NSP participation in the relevant standards bodies about signaling in optical networks. Thanks in advance Bora Akyol
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