WAVELENGTH REQUIREMENTS OF ALL-OPTICAL NETWORKS

All-optical networks are networks for which all data paths remain opti cal from input to output. With rapid development of optical technology , such networks are a viable choice for the highspeed wide area networ ks of the future. Wavelength division multiple access (WDMA) currently provides the most mature technology for all-optical networks, We disc uss a class of WDMA networks that are homogeneous in the sense that ea ch node contains both an input/output port and a switch, We focus on t he permutation routing problem and first present a lower bound on the number of wavelengths required for permutation routing as a function o f the size and degree of the network. We use particular topologies, in cluding the multistage perfect shuffle, the Debruijn, and the hypercub e, to find achievable upper bounds on the number of required wavelengt hs.