Cost-effective unique-path WDM optical interconnects

Summary form only given. With the increasing demand of the bandwidth in the current network, optics has become a major media in communications. Optical interconnects will inevitably play an important role in parallel and distributed computer systems. We analyze and compare the permutation performance and cost of different unique-path multistage networks in order to find a good candidate for a low-cost optical interconnect. Our analysis indicates that the a /spl times/ a normal network has the least cost and the highest permutation capability and is suitable for such an interconnect.