Design of node configuration for all-optical multi-fiber networks

It is cost-effective to install multiple fibers in each link of an all-optical network, because the cost of fibers is relatively low compared with the installation cost. The resulting network can provide a large capacity for good quality of service, future growth, and fault tolerance. If a node has more incoming/outgoing fibers, it requires larger optical switches. Using the current photonic technology, it is difficult to realize large optical switches. Even if they can be realized, they are expensive. To overcome this problem, we design a node configuration for all-optical networks. We exploit the flexibility that, to establish a lightpath across a node, we can select any one of the available channels in the incoming link and any one of the available channels in the outgoing link. As a result, the proposed node configuration requires significantly smaller optical switches while it can result in nearly the same blocking probability as the existing one. We demonstrate that a good network design is to adopt the proposed node configuration and slightly more fibers in each link, so that the network requires small optical switches while it has a small blocking probability.