Intra-Node Contention in Dynamic Photonic Networks

Dynamic photonic networks rely on colorless, non-directional Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) nodes to enable rapid re-routing of wavelength channels without optoelectronic conversion. We report numerical simulations of the wavelength contention that can occur in such multi-degree ROADM nodes. Intra-node blocking rates and transponder utilization are computed for node designs with and without a client-side fiber cross-connect, and both are compared to results predicted for an ideally contention-free ROADM.