Development of the photonic MPLS router to integrate optical and IP networks

A photonic multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) router was developed to integrate IP/MPLS router functions and MPλS switching function. The developed system achieved a distributed optical path set-up/tear-down protocol with an extended CR-LDP protocol. Fast self-healing through automatic protection switching and a new restoration scheme were also realized. These functions were successfully implemented and the performance was verified on a demonstration network. Less than 20 ms was achieved in the protection switching scheme, less than 500 ms was achieved in the optical path restoration scheme. The performance is sufficiently quick for fast recovery in IP over photonic networks.