A Mini-Slot Router Architecture for TDM Optical WDM Networks

Many routing and wavelength assignment algorithms have been proposed for optical networks, but they lack the refinement of being able to further share the gigabit bandwidth in each wavelength. Obviously, TDM wavelength routing networks can offer better network throughput than traditional wavelength routed networks. However, with the advancement of optical technology, it is possible to divide a wavelength in a fiber into time-slots, and further divide a time-slot into mini-slots so that the fiber bandwidth can be more efficiently utilized. This paper proposes a router architecture with an electronic system controller to support optical data transfer at the mini-slots of a time-slot in a wavelength for each hop of a route. No wavelength converter is employed in the proposed router architecture. The effectiveness of this network in blocking probability and throughput is demonstrated by simulation