Performance analysis of realistic optical time division multiplexed wavelength routed networks

Application of optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) in wavelength routed optical networks greatly enhances the flexibility of bandwidth assignment because OTDM provides time division sub-channels in a wavelength to match the processing speed of electronic devices. Different types of such OTDM wavelength-routed (OTDM-WR) networks, assuming different levels of sophistication of the OTDM technology, have been proposed. The performance of these OTDM-WR networks improves with the time-slot routing capability of the intermediate nodes of the network. However, as the transmission rate increases up to hundreds of gigabits per wavelength channel, electronic processing of the time slots limits the achievable performance of the OTDM-WR networks. All-optical signal processing can overcome the electronics bottleneck, but the available all-optical signal processing capability is rather limited and cannot yet utilize the full potential of time-slot routing. Even with such limitations, current technologies, such as fast wavelength converters and micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) optical switches, can significantly enhance the performance of existing wavelength-routed networks by adding the OTDM capability, albeit limited. We develop time-slot routing schemes that require fast wavelength converters only and study the performance of these schemes by simulations on Manhattan street networks and a network with the topology of the AT&T North America OC-48 fiber network.