Compass-EOS claims it can eliminate that step and just keep throwing routers at the problem, so to speak. Each router treats neighboring Compass-EOS routers as if they were its own line cards.

There’s a distance limitation, of course: about 200 meters. That’s still long enough that two routers, working in conjunction, can be on different floors of a building.

via Light Reading – Photonics Fire Up Radical Core Router Startup.