Architectures and Performance of Optical Packet Switching over WDM

Packet switching over wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) channels is considered with the aim to investigate algorithms for wavelength assignment and to define feasible switch architectures, in the presence of connectionless or connection-oriented transfer modes. In particular, as regards the connection-oriented scenario, mapping of virtual connections onto wavelengths operated by network nodes is considered and procedures are proposed to achieve statistical multiplexing efficiency by dynamic wavelength re-assignment. Switch architectures to support dynamic wavelength encoding and the related performance evaluation are presented and discussed in the paper, evidencing the benefits of packet switching over WDM.