Contention Resolution Using Parametric Wavelength Converters: Performance and Cost Analysis

This paper addresses contention resolution in optical switching fabrics exploiting Parametric Wavelength Converters (PWCs). Being a PWC able to perform simultaneous wavelength conversions, it can be employed to replace many single-channel wavelength converters, thus saving in the number of expensive optical components. Recently a switching fabric employing Fixed Wavelength Converters (FWCs), providing relevant cost savings compared to previous proposals, has been presented. The drawback is that it requires a high number of FWCs. For this reason, here new solutions based on PWCs instead of FWCs for such an architecture are proposed. Resulting switching fabrics are compared in terms of loss performance and cost. Simulation results outline that fabrics based on PWCs allow to save devices while obtaining the same performance as architectures using FWCs. They also prove how cost benefits are obtained in many switch configurations.