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We review several node architectures for optical slot switching ring networks, which can be used in metropolitan or datacenter applications, and compare them for their networking aspects. The dimensioning, quality of service, latency, and protection issues are discussed for the different approaches. The main devices, i.e. fast wavelength-tunable laser, burst-mode coherent receiver (which is required to enable high data rate transmission at 100 Gb/s and above), and a slot blocker for improved wavelength usage efficiency are described, and available technologies for each key building block are reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

IEEE Working Group 802.17 is standardizing a new ring topology network architecture, called the Resilient Packet Ring, to be used mainly in metropolitan and wide area networks. This article presents a technology background, gives an overview, and explains some of the design choices behind RPR. Some major architectural features are illustrated and compared by showing performance evaluation results using the RPR simulator developed at Simula Research Laboratory using the OPNET Modeler simulation environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The May/June 2004 issue of the periodical IEEE Network contains six excellent articles selected from the open submission call. They are articles that contain original research, surveys, and case studies. The articles have a tutorial style. The articles cover topics from various parts of the networking stack. Starting from the lower parts of the stack, researchers Ping Yuan, Violeta Gambiroza and Edward Knightly present the IEEE 802.17 standards efforts for metropolitan area networks; and researchers Yang Chen, Chunming Qiao and Xiang Yu review optical burst switching, and present recent work and open issues in this area. From the middle of the researchers stack, J. William Atwood presents an interesting classification of a number of reliable multicast protocols; and researchers Dahai Xu, Yizhi Xiong and Chunming Qiao highlight the significance of the trap problem in networks with shared risk link groups (SRLGs) and compare various protection schemes for SRLGs. Finally, from the upper parts of the stack, researchers Kin-Yeung Wong, Kai-Hau Yeung and Kwok-Fai Law present an architecture to reduce the number of TCP connections when proxies are used to access a Web server; and researchers Roch H. Glitho and Kindy Sylla discuss the Parlay application programming interface (API) for telephony applications and present a case study of an implementation of the API in a session initiation protocol environment.