Optical Flow Switching with Physical Layer Impairments: Modeling, Algorithm, and Control

Switching-induced physical layer impairments in EDFA-amplified optical links pose significant challenges to the applicability of optical flow switching (OFS). Based on measured data we have developed a model to predict lightpath quality and a scheduling algorithm that guarantees quality of lightpaths. Our algorithm greatly reduces control complexity and control traffic and can set up new lightpaths within ~5ms plus round-trip time and eliminate the need for an iterative turn-on process.