Static vs. dynamic regenerator assignment in optical switches: models and cost trade-offs

Agile all optical switches (OXC) currently use an architecture in which regenerators and transceivers have preassigned fixed directionality. However, technology is evolving to enable new OXC architectures in which the directionality of regenerators and transceivers can be dynamically assigned on demand. In this paper, we quantify the performance and cost benefits of regenerators and transceivers with dynamically assignable directionality. We show that fewer regenerators and transceivers need to be used with the new architecture because of sharing of resources across all directionality combinations. This translates to significant cost savings for the new architecture, especially as the traffic load in the network increases.