Transmission performance improvement in high density WDM networks due to wavelength conversion

Summary form only given. All-optical wavelength converters are key components for future WDM networks e.g. to eliminate wavelength blocking in optical cross-connects (OXCs) and to simplify traffic allocation and network management in the optical layer. It is accurate to say that in any WDM network and specifically at the OXC some of the channels will be converted and some of them will go through without conversion. The use of wavelength conversion may introduce considerable phase shift and bit-pattern inversion. This can significantly affect the evolution of nonlinear impairments between channels especially in long-haul, high density WDM networks.