Cisco Routed Optical Networking, an integral part of the Cisco Converged SDN Transport architecture, represents a transformative approach in modern networking. Routed optical networking is an architecture that simplifies the traditional DWDM layer by leveraging pluggable coherent optics that deliver coherent wavelengths directly from router ports. As routing infrastructure is upgraded to support increasingly scalable capacity, the IP layer can be used to more efficiently aggregate services onto coherent wavelengths delivered with pluggable technology.

Peter Fetterolf's whitepaper examines the total cost of ownership benefits of leveraging these newer technologies for DCI short-haul, metro medium-haul, and long-haul applications, as opposed to traditional networking models that require multiple layers of IP and optical switching as well as complex coordination.