There is an ongoing evolution of technology towards network convergence and ubiquitous information society in which users have broadband access to information resources and services anywhere, anytime. To realize this vision, a communication infrastructure has to be able to support a core backbone network delivering ultra-high capacity data services, a ubiquitous broadband wireless for last-mile access, and a control/management plane providing intelligent control to the infrastructure. Desirable characteristics of the infrastructure include insertion of future technology, intelligent spectrum management, cost-efficient upgradeability, flexible scalability, and cognitive networking capabilities. Unfortunately, present electronic technology alone is incapable of meeting these requirements.This dissertation describes the initial research into the realization of such an architecture that comprises of three crucial frameworks: 1) photonic-based; 2) dynamic chain processing; 3) and physical layer awareness. Due to the superior signal transport properties of optics, an underlying photonic data layer is able to provide the architecture with much wider bandwidth, greater RF-frequency-scalability, and higher operating RF-frequency. Photonics also enables diverse technologies to be integrated into a seamless communications platform. Dynamic processing chain framework provides the flexibility and future-proof capability via reconfigurability and componentization. Physical-layer-awareness offers support for automated adaptation and intelligent configuration of the data plane in response to the dynamic conditions of the physical layer. Crucial functional blocks in this awareness are: efficient estimation of physical impairments of the components and links; an effective dynamic impairment monitoring mechanism; and proficient adaptation to either maximize or optimize performance.Though the architecture encompasses both optical transport network (OTN) and photonic radio, this dissertation focuses more on the OTN. Central themes of OTN in this dissertation include relating Q-factor with various optical impairments from the perspective of an end-to-end optical path, and extending physical layer awareness with impairment routing. One of the key findings advocates that filtering is a serious limitation to bit-rate independence, protocol independence and network scalability promised by transparent network.