Service definition semantics for optical services on a choice-based network

Optical networks continue to provide the high-performance, high-bandwidth substrate of the planetary communication networks. The rapidly increasing and changing variety of demands placed on such networks requires that optical networks be increasingly agile and responsive to end-consumer traffic needs. Because of multiple levels of aggregation, the optical core is generally less responsive to changing needs at access levels. We have previously proposed that providing architectural mechanisms that allow the provider to inform the customer of available alternatives enables a co-optimization of network resources jointly by customers and providers, leading to better performance for the customer while utilizing resources more efficiently for the provider. In this paper, we show how optical switching capabilities may be abstracted as services to enable the automatic composability that is required for such a system. We have successfully demonstrated a proof-of-concept prototype of this architecture in the GENI environment, which we briefly describe.