A wavelength-convertible optical network

Wavelength-division multiplexing is emerging as the dominate technology in future all-optical networks. To efficiently use the wavelengths, wavelength converters are employed for a circuit-switched optical network in which a circuit can change its wavelength to resolve wavelength conflicts and to reuse the wavelengths. To improve the efficiency, a few converters are provided and shared by the incoming circuits in the share-per-node or the share-per-link wavelength-convertible switch. A heuristic algorithm for dynamic routing is used to reduce the number of converters. Performance gain in call blocking probability and fairness and in the reduction of the number of converters are shown.