A novel optical control plane for switching a limited range wavelength converter based electro-optical hybrid node in translucent WDM optical networks

In a translucent wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) network, development of an optical control plane (OCP) that is aware of the location and number of available regenerators and all-optical wavelength converters (AOWCs) is of paramount importance. However, generalized multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS) protocol suite does not consider the distribution of regenerator and AOWC information to all network nodes. In this paper, we propose an OCP architecture which disseminates regenerator and AOWC information to all the network nodes. The Physical Layer Impairment-Signal Quality Aware Routing and Wavelength Assignment (PLISQARWA) algorithm is employed for RWA. The electro-optical hybrid translucent nodes have been employed which, from a practical perspective, are based on limited range wavelength converters (LRWCs). Performance of the proposed limited range OCP (LR-P-OCP), is compared with the full range OCP (FR-P-OCP) and the hybrid OCP (H-OCP) approach.