JumpStart: A just-in-time signaling architecture for WDM burst-switched networks

We present an architecture for a core dWDM network which utilizes the concept of optical burst switching coupled with a just-in-time signaling scheme. It is a reservation-based architecture whose distinguishing characteristics are its relative simplicity, its amenability to hardware implementation, and the ability to support multicast natively. Another important feature is data transparency - the network infrastructure is independent of the format of the data being transmitted on individual wavelengths. We present the signaling protocol designed for this architecture, as well as an unified signaling message structure to be used in conjunction with the protocol. We also present the future directions of this research.