Performance of a packet switched WDM network with dynamic wavelength selection

WDM networks in general depend on transmitters and receivers that are precisely tuned to predetermined fixed wavelengths. Robust WDM is an approach aimed at relaxing manufacturing and operating wavelength tolerance requirements, which will lead to cost effective implementations. In this approach, connections are based on dynamically selected wavelengths as opposed to using fixed wavelength channels. A station that needs a connection selects a wavelength during a reservation interval. The performance of a simplified WDM protocol with dynamic wavelength selection is modeled and analyzed for packet traffic. In this version, the reservation intervals are assigned to stations randomly. The performance of the protocol is analyzed for different network parameters.