Latency-Aware Optical Routing for Real-Time Cloud and Edge Computing Applications
Keywords:
optical routing; edge computing; cloud computing; latency; network architecture; resource governance; sustainability; robustness; fairness; policyAbstract
Real-time cloud and edge computing applications are reshaping the performance requirements of communication infrastructures because they depend not only on high capacity but also on predictable, bounded, and verifiable latency. Optical transport has long been valued for immense bandwidth and low loss, yet conventional optical routing is often optimized for aggregate throughput, restoration, and cost rather than the fine-grained latency guarantees demanded by distributed inference, industrial control, immersive media, telemedicine, and vehicular coordination. This paper examines latency-aware optical routing as a socio-technical systems problem that spans physical-layer multiplexing, switching architectures, control-plane intelligence, service orchestration, deployment economics, sustainability, robustness, fairness, and policy. It argues that latency cannot be treated as a single metric attached to a path; it is a composite property produced by propagation distance, optical and electronic switching, queuing, contention, synchronization, failure recovery, and governance decisions across multiple administrative domains. The analysis compares optical circuit switching, wavelength routing, burst-oriented designs, elastic optical networking, and software-defined wide-area control, showing how each introduces distinct trade-offs among determinism, utilization, flexibility, and resilience. The paper also considers edge-cloud continuums in which compute placement and route selection must be co-optimized, because a slightly longer optical path may be preferable if it avoids a congested or unreliable compute node. Special attention is given to frequency-referenced multiplexing as an example of physical-layer innovation that can support guaranteed bandwidth and low latency, while cautioning that such mechanisms must be integrated with broader control, accountability, and fairness frameworks. The conclusion identifies research priorities for measurement, verification, standardization, sustainable deployment, and equitable access.
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This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
