Ultra-reliable communication over unreliable optical networks via lightpath diversity: system characterization and optimization

We propose using diversity via multiple disjoint lightpaths at the optical layer to achieve ultra-reliable communication with low delay between any source-destination pair of all-optical networks. A doubly-stochastic point process model is used to characterize the photo-events of a direct detection receiver. The error probability can be designed to be significantly lower than that of a system without lightpath diversity. System parameters, such as the number of lightpaths used, are optimized to achieve efficient utilization of the limited optical transmitter power.