Maximum Size and Throughput of SOA-Based Optical Burst Switching Nodes With Limited Tuning-Range Wavelength Converters and FDL Buffers

In this paper, we show the physical limitations of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based switching nodes for optical burst switching (OBS). The investigation covers one basic tune-and-select (TAS) architecture, as well as extensions with wavelength converters of limited tuning range (LTR) and dedicated and shared fiber delay line (FDL) buffers. Their maximum size and throughput are analyzed for nodes with four input/output fibers at different bit rates. As main impairments for signal degradation amplifier noise and crosstalk are considered. It is shown that the advanced contention resolution functionality leads to smaller-sized nodes due to higher losses and noise. Among the considered node architectures the highest maximum throughput can be achieved with TAS-LTR due to the smaller number of SOA noise contributions.