Two addressing schemes for GMPLS enabled optical networks

In GMPLS enabled optical network, data channel is separate from control channel. There are two possible addressing schemes for a GMPLS network. One addressing scheme is to address control channel and data channel separately. In this case, the control channel uses the traditional router interface while the data channel uses the TE-link independently. The other is to follow the one-to-one association scheme as traditional Label Switch Router. In this case, it combines the data channel and its associated control channel as a compound TE-Link while making extension to the semantic classes of labels to cover non-packet switch data channels, the frame relay, the ATM VPI/VCI, TDM slots, wavelength, waveband, fiber, etc. In this paper, we identify briefly the different features of these two addressing schemes and analyze the impact on GMPLS network deployment in current IP/GMPLS/WDM network.