The introduction of sub-wavelength switching is one of the main objectives of the future transparent optical mesh networks. One strong candidate is Optical Burst Switching (OBS) which improves the resource utilisation by setting up very short lived circuits (bursts). Nonetheless, introducing optical transparency in the optical layer has an important impact on the network performance. In fact, the signal propagates through a transparent optical path accumulates the effect of a variety of quality degrading phenomena which limits the system reach. Translucent optical networks are emerging as a promising solution for bridging the gap between opaque and transparent networks. In this paper we investigate these alternatives in OBS networks and test the effectiveness of the translucent solution.

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