Wavelength-division-multiplexing optical packet switch with heterogeneous wavelength conversion capabilities.

ABSTRACT

Among the wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) optical packet switches (OPSs) using wavelength converters (WCs), a shared-per-node switch architecture has been considered as a way to utilize WCs efficiently. We propose a new switch control algorithm for the architecture. The proposed algorithm, different from previous algorithms, focuses on using the heterogeneous WC blocks (HeWCBs), where a HeWCB consists of WCs with different wavelength conversion degrees (WCDs). The results show that the WDM OPS architecture using HeWCBs reduces the number of WCs with a higher WCD, while minimizing the packet loss from wavelength contention at outbound links.