
transmission and cascaded nodes, and (d) impose low crosstalk between the header
and the payload. The serial header techniques place the header bit-serial to the
payload in the time domain and require a relatively strict control of the timing. The
parallel header techniques place the header on a separate wavelength, frequency,
modulation format, or code. The parallel header architecture facilitates the header
replacement process because a separate channel allows parallel processing of the
header. It also provides better support for asynchronous variable-length packet
switching, offers possible interoperability between OPS with OCS and OBS, and
rela ...