Optical Broadcast-and-Select Network Architecture with Centralized Multi-Carrier Light Source

This paper proposes an optical broadcast-and-select network architecture with centralized multi-carrier light source (C-MCLS). A large number of optical carriers/wavelengths generated by C-MCLS are distributed to all edge nodes (ENs), which select and modulate wavelengths to realize transmission. To utilize wavelength resources efficiently, we introduce a framework of wavelength allocation and selection (WAS). Wavelength allocation is performed at a wavelength control server, while wavelength selection is done at each EN according to wavelength allocation results. Both static and dynamic schemes are adopted for WAS and their implementations are shown. By using fixed or tunable band pass filter and periodical arrayed waveguide grating demultiplexer, wavelengths are selected and utilized by ENs in a static or dynamic manner. We evaluate network cost and performance of the proposed network. Cost analysis and numerical results show that it offers greatly reduced cost compared to the conventional one when the number of required access wavelengths at EN becomes large. We delineate its applicable areas through cost comparisons. Blocking probabilities of static and dynamic schemes are analyzed to evaluate network performance. Numerical results show that by choosing appropriate design parameters, the dynamic scheme offers about 25% increase in admissible offered load under the specified blocking probability, compared to the static scheme. This indicates that the dynamic scheme makes the proposed network more robust against traffic fluctuations.