16.2 OPTICAL BURST SWITCHING TECHNOLOGIES
Second-generation optical networking is based on reconfigurable OCS where
lightpath provisioning processes require assurances in meeting service layer agree-
ments based on reserving available resources including protection paths/links. The
overlay data communication network (DCN) uses a data communication channel
(DCC) to support communications for provisioning the lightpaths. While OCS can
support quality-of-service (QoS) assurances associated with the lightpaths, provi-
sioning of lightpaths can take relatively a long time (many seconds or minutes),
and it is not uncommon that the service providers take several months in manually
provisioning lightpaths. OBS networks [4, 5] initially emerged as very fast ...