Space–Space–Wavelength and Wavelength–Space–Space Switch Structures for Flexible Optical Networks

Abstract

In the literature, three-stage switching networks have been considered for nodes in elastic optical networks, where switches with spectrum conversion capability are placed in the first and third stages (wavelength–space–wavelength—WSW) or only in the second stage (space–wavelength–space—SWS). This paper proposes three-stage switching networks where the switches with spectrum conversion functions are located only in the first stage (wavelength–space–space—WSS) or only in the third stage (space–space–wavelength—SSW). For these networks, the strict-sense non-blocking conditions are derived and proved, and the number of elements required for their construction is assessed. It turns out that the proposed networks can be constructed with 50% fewer tunable spectrum converters than in the WSW networks, and this reduction is even greater in the case of the SWS networks.