On the design of a 2 log N - 2 WDM optical path cross connect with full permutation capability

In this paper, we propose a new Optical path Cross Connect (OXC) architecture for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks with reduced switching and conversion complexity. The proposed OXC is based on two design principles: bulk wavelength conversion, and single-step space/wavelength switching. Combined power of these two design principles lead to a novel OXC design with minimum number of switches as well as wave-length conversions. The proposed design follows the structure of the well-known Benes network and provides a full-permutation connectivity in both space and wavelength domains using only 2 log ₂ N -2 switching stages, and thus, requires N/2 less switching elements (N = FW, where F is the total number of fibers and W that of wavelengths). We investigate the main properties of the proposed design and compare it to well-known existing OXCs.