Use of static versus dynamic wavelength converters in all-optical networks

In this paper, the importance of wavelength converter modules in all-optical networks is highlighted. Two types of wavelength converters are proposed, static and dynamic wavelength converters. A wavelength converter (also referred to as Frequency Transformer) converts the wavelength of the incoming optical signal to another wavelength in the wavelength spectrum. The goal of this work is to provide some insights into the effect of static versus dynamic wavelength conversion on the performance of optical networks based on Bidirectional de Bruijn (BdB) topology. We study how performance (in terms of blocking probability and the network load) depend on the number of wavelengths per optical link. We also evaluate performance of a given network employing both static and dynamic wavelength converters through simulation and present the simulation results. The motivation behind having static wavelength converters is the relatively low cost compared to dynamic wavelength converters. Also an Error-Correcting Routing Algorithm (ECRA) is proposed that makes use of static wavelength converters which is based on the principle of error-correcting routing.