High-Speed Wavelength Resource Reconfiguration System Concurrently Establishing/Removing Multiwavelength Signals

We propose a novel wavelength resource reconfiguration system with a wavelength selective switch (WSS) and our unique burst-mode erbium-doped fiber amplifier (BM-EDFA) for dynamic and agile new-generation optical networks such as an elastic optical network. The system can concurrently establish or remove multiwavelength channels, while preserving the system stability. In a conventional reconfiguration system, the processing time is increased in proportion to the number of the reconfigured wavelength channels because each wavelength channel is sequentially established or removed. On the other hand, in the proposed system, the multiwavelength channels would be simultaneously established or removed. Therefore, in principle, the processing time for reconfiguration of multiwavelength channels can be 1/(the number of the reconfigured channels) compared to the conventional system with sequential processing. In addition, the system can provide a further reduction effect of the processing time since the adjustment of variable optical attenuators of the WSS is unnecessary after establishing or removing multiwavelength channels. We had demonstrated a proof of concept using a reconfiguration system for the first time. The system employing flexible-grid WSSs and a BM-EDFA showed that the total processing time could be more than 100 s shorter in the case of removing four-wavelength channels with the high-quality data transmission.