  A new architectural paradigm, named, optical-computing-enabled network, is
proposed as a potential evolution of the currently used optical-bypass
framework. The main idea is to leverage the optical computing capabilities
performed on transitional lightpaths at intermediate nodes and such proposal
reverses the conventional wisdom in optical-bypass network, that is, separating
in-transit lightpaths in avoidance of unwanted interference. In
optical-computing-enabled network, the optical nodes are therefore upgraded
from conventional functions of add-drop and cross-connect to include optical
computing / processing capabilities. This is enabled by exploiting the
superposition of in-transit lightpaths for computing purposes to achieve
greater capacity efficiency. While traditional network design and planning
algorithms have been well-developed for optical-bypass framework in which the
routing and resource allocation is dedicated to each optical channel
(lightpath), more complicated problems arise in optical-computing-enabled
architecture as a consequence of intricate interaction between optical channels
and hence resulting into the establishment of the so-called integrated /
computed lightpaths. This necessitates for a different framework of network
design and planning to maximize the impact of optical computing opportunities.
In highlighting this critical point, a detailed case study exploiting the
optical aggregation operation to re-design the optical core network is
investigated in this paper. Numerical results obtained from extensive
simulations on the COST239 network are presented to quantify the efficacy of
optical-computing-enabled approach versus the conventional
optical-bypass-enabled one.
