An optical cross connected architecture based on planar lightwave circuit switches

A new optical cross connected architecture based on planar lightwave circuit switches (PLC) and a bank of wavelength blockers is presented. This new proposed architecture could save a large number of required wavelength blockers (WB) ranging from 33 % to 95 % and improve the optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) of the signal in various paths, when the network has a mesh-like topology. The new architecture is compared to other optical cross-connected (OXC) architectures based on the OSNR, and it is shown that the proposed architecture has an OSNR ranging from 43 dB to 31.1 dB. Compared to other architectures this new architecture is an excellent candidate for all-optical networks which also has multicast and broadcast capabilities.