Performance evaluation of a large-scale optical switch based on an arrayed waveguide grating router and wavelength converter

A scheduling scheme for a large-scale optical switch is presented and its performance is evaluated. The optical switch is built on an arrayed waveguide grating router (AWGR) and space switching enabled tunable wavelength converter (SS-TWC) and in a Clos switch structure. The SS-TWC has more than one output and in the switch structure enables a multiple fold expansion of the switch port count while using the same dimension AWGR. The switch reconfiguration is triggered by an event, e.g., packet arriving or input port transmitter available for its waiting packets, and the scheduling scheme operates asynchronously. Simulation results demonstrate that the traffic scheduling scheme enables the delivery of high-transmission bandwidth and low packet delay performance, and verify the nonblocking property of the switch. (C) 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)