In recent years both the core clock frequencies and the amount of power that can costeffectively be removed from a chip have begun to level off, while chip manufacturers have continued to increase the number of cores per processor. These facts have driven computer architects to examine high bandwidth, energy efficient on-chip optical networks, which feature microring resonators as a basic building block. In this thesis I investigate ways to compensate for the thermal sensitivity of these resonators, and I present an architect's view of the nature of microring malfunctions and propose techniques to overcome errors. I demonstrate that on-chip networks with microring counts in the hundreds of thousands will be feasible, and that using photonics, it is possible to create directly connected topologies that eliminate the need for arbitration. The Directly-Connected Arbitration-Free (DCAF) topologies that I propose in this work are actually a family of networks that allow the computer architect to configure the degree of simultaneous communication in order to meet the available power budget. Finally, I show that because photonics do not follow Moore's Law, it will be increasingly difficult to get data to and from the microrings, and that designers must take this into account when choosing a topology. Based on the work presented in this thesis, it is clear that architects must take a holistic view of the entire system when designing photonic networks.