MULTIWAVELENGTH CROSS-CONNECTS FOR OPTICAL TRANSPORT NETWORKS

Multiwavelength cross-connects (M-XC's) will play a key role in future optical multiwavelength transport networks, In this paper, we propose a class of optical wavelength interchange devices that can be used as basic building-blocks for multiwavelength optical cross-connects. We describe three different multiwavelength cross-connect structures that can be constructed using these building blocks, We investigate their blocking performance and examine issues such as complexity, modularity , and wavelength channel spacing associated with the proposed cross-co nnect structures.