The technologies of IP over WDM have presently received increasing attention owing to the rapid growth in Internet traffic and the need for next-generation Internet technologies. The challenge now is how to integrate the services of IP over WDM optical networks to take full advantages of WDM technologies and IP technologies, and yield a high-throughput optical platform directly underpinning next generation data networks. This article discusses some of the architecture and technology issues for the design of IP over WDM optical networks.