In the context of the KM3NeT Design Study and building on the experience with the data acquisition system of the ANTARES telescope, an alternative readout and DAQ architecture has been developed for deep-sea neutrino telescopes. The system relies on sensor technology using photonic readout and a 10 Gb/s optical network for data acquisition and communication. Compared to ANTARES, more functionality has been migrated to the shore, thus allowing for timely deployment of the telescope components and easy access to the system during the long lifetime of neutrino telescopes. Also the reconfiguration of the DAQ system is located on shore. Timing calibration is an integral part of the network architecture providing an event timing integrity with less than 1 ns. Although developed for use in the deep-sea, the concept of the system can be used in other applications, e.g. in the LHC experiments.