A new architecture is emerging, and it stands to disrupt the way networks have been built for the last 10 to 20 years. This new network architecture effectively removes the optical switching layer and puts the switching onus back onto the router layer, thus simplifying the management of the entire network.

400 Gbps routers are delivering a massive increase in router scale and capacity, resulting in a significantly lower cost per bit router. At the same time, DCO optics have decreased in size and power consumption where 400G optics can now reside on a router card at much higher densities. 

Should we change the architecture to allow transit traffic to flow through the router layer and remove the complexity of the optical layer? Peter Fetterolf's paper will examine both the capital expenditure and operational expenditure savings to provide a total cost of ownership model. 

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