Banyan type switching network with wavelength routing

This paper deals with the problem of developing WDM optical switching networks with reduced hardware complexity and with arbitrary number of wavelengths and fibers. Proposed algorithm for construction log₂(N,m,1) switching networks is based on permutation of interstage links, thus can be used for any Banyan type switching network and for any extra m stages (m <; log₂N). In presented design two types of switching elements (SE) are used: conventional Space Switching Elements (SSE) and Wavelength Exchange Optical Crossbar (WOC). Since WOC allow to realize wavelength exchange within a switching network, proposed architecture does not require any expensive wavelength converters before input and after output stages.