Patent ID: 8532087

Claim:
An optical network comprising: sections for establishing optical paths using Open Shortest Path First-Traffic Engineering (OSPF-TE) as a routing protocol and Resource reSerVation Protocol-Traffic Engineering (RSVP-TE) as a signaling protocol, for Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS); a plurality of optical edge routers for connecting external IP networks to the optical network; and a plurality of optical cross connects, for connecting the optical edge routers by the optical paths, having switching sections with respect to an optical path unit, wherein each of the optical edge routers has both of: an IP network instance for maintaining a routing table in each of the external IP networks and activating routing protocols between the external IP networks and the IP network instance, the routing protocols including a routing protocol for exchanging route information of the external IP networks with neighboring nodes in the external IP networks; and an optical network control instance for collecting topology information and resource information in the optical network from a neighboring node, maintaining the topology information in the optical network and switching/signaling the optical paths based on at least one of topology and the route information for the external IP networks learned from the activated routing protocols, wherein Border Gateway Protocols (BGPs) are used for the routing protocol for exchanging the route information of the external IP networks, wherein the optical paths are wavelength paths, and wherein the optical network control instances are provided so as to be used by all the external IP networks, wherein the IP network instances corresponding to all the external IP networks are provided independent of each other, and wherein an IP routing neighborhood relationship is established between the optical edge routers and the neighboring nodes in the external IP networks.