PBT doesn't have to operate with a GMPLS control plane. "What I don't want people to think is that one requires the other."

But Hawkins concedes GMPLS will probably end up in the PBT picture: "They're probably going to become sister technologies."

That's because PBT requires filling out forwarding tables, and GMPLS is a good way to get the info for the tables. "It's counter-intuitive for the Ethernet guys, who don't want to populate forwarding tables."

PBT doesn't save the world. Some arguments against it are going too far afield, Hawkins thinks -- there was one Expo speaker, for example, who began discussing VLAN tag swapping or some such. Not quite the same zip code, Hawkins says. "All I'm trying to do is solve the metro point-to-point problem."