Cascadability of all-optical cross connects based on wavelength conversion

Summary form only given. In a multiwavelength optical transport network, the optical cross connects (OXCs) route optical channels according to their respective wavelengths. The reconfiguration of the routing matrix aims at restoring the channels in case of failure and at fulfilling new traffic demands. Previous demonstrations have been made, based on space switching and tunable filtering. The flexibility of such OXCs is increased when wavelength conversion is added to the node structure. With an 4×4 active routing element, space routing may be completed by tuning wavelength converters. This structure may also be used for switching purpose in access networks. This paper relates experimental results concerning the node cascadability, which appears to be a key parameter for network issues.