Design of OXC architectures based on arrayed waveguide gratings: topological properties and physical performance

In this paper an OXC architecture incorporating a wavelength switching stage and a broadcast and select stage is presented. In order to overcome the need for tunable wavelength converters with a wide tuning range, several multistage topologies are proposed for the wavelength conversion stage. The topological properties of the architectures are evaluated to determine the non-blocking conditions using space equivalent diagrams. Finally, the physical layer performance of several configurations of the monostage and multistage topologies is examined so as to assess the OXC cascadeability in an optical network