Multistage Shared-per-Wavelength Optical Packet Switch: Heuristic Scheduling Algorithm and Performance

An optical switch architecture is presented based on the shared-per-wavelength strategy for contention resolution in the wavelength domain, which impacts on wavelength converters requirements and switch organization. The general sharing concept is first introduced and the related practical solution as a multi-stage switch architecture is presented and thoroughly analyzed both in performance and control perspectives. Heuristic scheduling to manage packet forwarding in synchronous context is developed and discussed in terms of computational complexity. A simple accurate analytical model is developed and validated against simulation to numerically evaluate packet loss performance of the shared-per-wavelength switch. The main achievement of the work is represented by the proposal of a feasible approach which leads to remarkable cost saving in terms of optical gates and wavelength converters under the conditions outlined.