Waveband routing and merging in hybrid optical networks

Hybrid hierarchical optical cross-connects leverages the benefits of both all-optical (OOO) and optical-electrical (OEO) switching for a cost-effective solution in future optical networks. The design goal using hybrid cross-connects is to minimize the sum of two cost metrics: OEO switching cost and OOO switching cost. This paper proposes two different waveband merging architectures and minimum cost routing and merging algorithms for offline traffic scenario. The simulation based results show that the proposed algorithms provide higher cost benefit as compared to existing algorithms that do not rely on waveband merging architecture.