Reliability study of fault-tolerant multiwavelength nonblocking optical cross connect based on InGaAsP/InP laser-amplifier gate-switch arrays

Reliability studies for a multiwavelength nonblocking optical cross connect (OXC) are presented. Calculations are based on available reliability data for commercial components as well as expected life lengths for new components and systems developed for application in the OXC. Reliability of the electronic control system is not considered here. Average OXC downtime below 2 min/year can be obtained. In general for switching systems it is required that average downtime is held below 3 min/year. As the OXC is proposed to be utilized in telecommunication in optical transport networks it is extremely important to know if this OXC exhibits reliability properties acceptable for this purpose.<>