A. Watanabe et al., OPTICAL-PATH CROSS-CONNECT SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE SUITABLE FOR LARGE-SCALE EXPANSION, Journal of lightwave technology, 14(10), 1996, pp. 2162-2172
This paper proposes, for WP's (wavelength paths) and VWP's (virtual wa
velength paths), a new OPXC (optical path cross-connect) architecture
suitable for constructing large stale OPXC systems. The architecture i
s based on the multimodule concept and uses main modules and junction
modules, The proposed OPXC Is shown to provide triple the throughput o
f the conventional OPXC (delivery and coupling switch based) assuming
state-of-the-art commercially available devices. It allows traffic dem
and increases to be supported with less OPXC switch hardware compared
to the conventional OPXC architecture, The proposed architecture also
keeps the advantages of the conventional architecture: a high level of
expandability with regard to incoming/outgoing links and upgradabilit
y from a WP network to a VWP network, Thus the proposed OPXC architect
ure is highly flexible and allows minimum investment to encourage intr
oduction while gracefully supporting future system scale expansion wit
h incremental growth matching the traffic demand.