LAYERED SWITCH ARCHITECTURES FOR HIGH-CAPACITY OPTICAL TRANSPORT NETWORKS

We propose and analyze layered switch architectures that possess high design flexibility, greatly reduced switch size, and high expandabilit y. The improvement in loss and crosstalk due to the reduced switch siz e is also discussed. Theoretical models have been developed to compute the network blocking probability using these architectures. Low block ing probability and high network utilization are achieved because of t he capability of communication between layers in adjacent switches. Th e results show that the proposed layered switch architectures are very attractive for high-capacity optical transport networks.