Performance of optical networks

We will review and compare the most common wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) optical network architectures and present conclusions on the potential roles of these architectures for various applications, e.g., LANs, MANs, WANs, access, enterprise, and carrier networks. We cover broadcast stars, passive wavelength-routed networks, and configurable wavelength-routed networks, which use wavelength-selective switches. The emphasis is on the network performance, e.g., blocking probabilities, circuit-carrying capacity, etc., of these architectures and on device/network performance trade-offs. Of particular interest is the potential usefulness of wavelength changers to increase capacity. Other issues in the wavelength changer debate are also discussed, such as routing complexity, reliability and network-network interfacing. We survey previous results on these topics and discuss what open questions remain