All-optical OXC transition strategy from WDM optical network to elastic optical network

Area of Science:

• Optical networking
• Telecommunications engineering

Background:

• Elastic Optical Networks (EONs) offer improved spectrum efficiency over traditional Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (WDM) networks to meet escalating traffic demands.
• The high cost of Spectrum Selective Switches (SSSs) in EON Optical Cross-Connects (OXCs) presents a significant barrier to EON adoption compared to WDM OXCs using Wavelength Selective Switches (WSSs).

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and demonstrate a cost-effective transition optical cross-connect (TOXC) structure for migrating from WDM to EON.
• To introduce a Contention-Aware Spectrum Allocation (CASA) scheme tailored for EONs utilizing the proposed TOXC architecture.

Main Methods:

• Development of a novel 2-stage cascading switching architecture for the TOXC.
• Integration of existing Wavelength Selective Switches (WSSs) to minimize the need for expensive Spectrum Selective Switches (SSSs).
• Simulation-based analysis of the TOXC performance and the CASA scheme.

Main Results:

• The proposed TOXC structure significantly reduces network capital expenditure during the WDM to EON transition by approximately 50%.
• The TOXC architecture exhibits only a minor degradation in traffic blocking performance compared to all-SSS EON OXC architectures.
• A slight detriment of about 10% in accommodated traffic is observed compared to all-SSS EON OXC architectures.

Conclusions:

• The developed TOXC structure offers a viable and economical solution for the gradual deployment of elastic optical networks.
• The CASA scheme effectively manages spectrum allocation within EONs built with the proposed TOXC, balancing cost and performance.