As services shift to IP protocols and bandwidth demands grow, Wireline Telcos and Cable MSOs alike must evolve their infrastructures to become IP centric. Current SONET-based architectures hinder the growth of high capacity Ethernet (GbE, 10GbE, etc.) trunking. To overcome the limitations of SONET architectures, service providers are focusing on the creation of feeder and distribution infrastructures based either upon next generation optical systems or routers and switches. This paper discusses how either of these two paths can evolve to accomplish a converged service class packet optical infrastructure.