Performance evaluation of an optical packet switch using wavelength and code domain to solve output contentions

In this paper we investigate the performance of an Optical Code Division Multiplexing/Wavelength Division Multiplexing (OCDM/WDM) Optical Packet Switch when impairment due to both Multiple Access Interference and Beat noise are taken into account. The Packet Loss Probability due to output packet contentions is evaluated as a function of the main switch and traffic parameters when Gold coherent optical codes are adopted. When the available bandwidth is fixed, due to a statistical multiplexing effect, we show that the use of more length codes and fewer wavelengths lead to lower packet loss probability, especially for low offered traffic.