SIP-empowered optical networks for future IT services and applications

This article presents a novel application-aware network architecture for evolving and emerging IT services and applications. It proposes to enrich an optical burst switching network with a session control layer that can close the gap between application requests and network control. The session control layer is implemented using the session initiation protocol, giving birth to what is called a SIP-OBS architecture. The article discusses the important added value of this architecture, and shows that it may support a number of end-to-end resource discovery and reservation strategies (for both network and non-network resources). Finally, it presents a testbed implementation where this approach was experimentally validated.