Swanet: a Novel Self-routed Wavelength-addressable Optical Switching Network 1

In this paper, we introduce a novel self-routed wavelength-addressable switching network (SWANET) that provides wavelength-transparent optical data paths between end-points, conng-ured by wavelength-coded optical signals. The network is based on a new scheme for encoding destination addresses using a sequence of wavelengths. This allows large networks to be constructed using a moderate number of available wavelengths. The multistage switch architecture may be used either as a circuit switch or as a packet switch. We analyze the eeect of wavelength inaccuracies on the misrouting probability and show that our addressing scheme provides a much higher tolerance to wavelength variations in comparison to conventional wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM). We also analyze the eeect of ber dispersion on the transmission time of the header and evaluate the tradeoos involved in minimizing the header transmission time. Experimental results from a small prototype switch node are presented to establish the feasibility of the architecture. Performance results are also presented from simulations of a 256-port network in both circuit-switched and packet-switched modes of operation.