In this chapter, I will briefly summarize work that is related to the topic of this thesis.
One key aspect of this thesis is the exploration of how to integrate high-capacity, all-optical circuit switches in the core of the network with a packet-switched access network. This integration was achieved by monitoring user-flows. Section 6.2 summarizes other approaches that also integrate circuit switching in the Internet. In contrast, Section 6.3 presents some approaches that try to extend the packet switching paradigm to an all-optical core. Since this approach differs significantly from the rest of this thesis, Section 6.3 has a discussion of its performance. Finally, Section 6.4 reviews other proposals for monitoring user flows.