The present disclosure provides virtual router/switch systems and methods with a domain of optical switches operating as a single, virtualized router using a control plane design combining centralized control of higher layer packet switching functions with distributed control over transport switching functions. The virtual router systems and methods simplify and reduce cost of Internet Protocol (IP) networks by removing the core routers, replacing them with lower cost, high capacity optical switches which are Packet Optical Transport Systems (POTS). The virtual router systems and methods avoids full mesh connectivity of the edge routers and the associated need to maintain routing adjacencies to each of the other edge routers. The virtual router systems and methods include a centralized IP layer management. Further, the virtual router systems and methods include distributed control of the optical layers.
