Limited-range wavelength conversion modeling for asynchronous optical packet-switched networks

Packet contention is a very important issue in optical packet-switched networks. This paper analyzes asynchronous optical packet switches when wavelength conversion is used as contention resolution mechanism. A wavelength converter can convert one wavelength to another and consequently improve the network performance. In practical systems, a wavelength converter normally presents limited range conversion capability. In this paper we propose a Markov model that enables the calculation of packet blocking probability for asynchronous optical packet switches equipped with single per channel limited-range wavelength converters. The analytical model is based on an infinitely fine input granularity assumption and it is shown to present a good approximation with simulation results.