Design of hybrid optical networks with waveband and electrical TDM switching

We propose a hybrid optical-electrical switch architecture which integrates all-optical waveband switching and electrical time-division-multiplexed (TDM) switching. By grouping pass-through traffic into wavebands and switching them all-optically, the hybrid architecture can significantly reduce the size of electrical switch and number of associated transponders. As a result, it provides tens of terabits per second switch throughput with a small footprint. The proposed architecture is capable of TDM switching, wavelength conversion, and multicasting. In this paper, we investigate the network-optimization problem with static traffic to minimize the overall network switch cost. A mathematical formulation of the optimization problem and its solutions are presented. Fast heuristic approaches for near-optimal solutions are also proposed and evaluated.