This work presents a novel solution towards a long-reach intelligent infrastructure for Grid networking. The proposed solution is based on the deployment of high capacity optical infrastructure whilst taking advantage of recent developments in optical networking technologies. Optical burst switching and a user network interface utilizing fast tunable optical technologies provide a physical infrastructure able to fulfill the Grid application requirements and make efficient use of network resources. Furthermore a control and management plane based on extensions of existing artifacts offers peer-to-peer distributed networking to enable Grid services.