Resources sharing in optical packet switches with limited-range wavelength converters

This paper compares selected optical packet switching architectures that use the wavelength conversion technique to solve the packet contention problem. The architectures are equipped with shared and limited-range wavelength converters (LRWCs). This paper focuses on two architectures: the shared per node (SPN) and the shared per output fiber (SPOF) architectures, in which the wavelength converters are SPN and output fiber, respectively. Packet loss probability is expressed as a function of the number of wavelength converters used, by means of analytical models validated by simulations. The analytical results show how the use of a reduced number of LRWCs with small range allows the switch to obtain the same performances of an architecture equipped with all of the wavelength converters and using a full wavelength conversion.