The authors explore a metropolitan area network (MAN) configuration which assumes capabilities of optical fiber and optical components which are anticipated to be available within a ten-year time frame. There are two possible physical configurations: a basic topology, such as the star and the tree, and a compound configuration, such as the tree-star-tree. As a logical overlay which serves to route information packets between stations, a form of perfect shuffle, the ShuffleNet, is used. Performance is calculated in terms of average packet delay as a function of traffic load. Of particular interest is the effect of physical limitations on performance. In particular, the effect of a limitation on the bandwidth of optical amplifiers is delineated. This limitation increases the length of the path between originating and terminating stations. >