Multiwavelength optical networks: Next generation performance with today´s technology

We discuss what we see as the "next generation" in WDM networking, which is still waiting in the wings: the integration of transmission, switching and network access equipment, both optical and electronic, into a seamless whole. Our objective is to show how today\´s off-the-shelf technology can be organized into multiwavelength networks which go well beyond the potential of the current generation of WDM networks. The networks we describe are designed, managed and controlled within the framework of a layered multiwavelength network architecture. They use "ordinary" components in special ways to obtain out-of-the-ordinary performance. The networks are all in the form of an underlying purely optical infrastructure, which provides a pool of bandwidth to a number of independent logical networks, each of which is specialized in providing a particular service to some user population. For example, one logical network might belong to an internet service provider, and another to a distributor of video-on demand