Performance Evaluation of Optical Cross Connects for Dense and Ultra Wide Wavelength Division Multiplexing Transmission Systems

Continuous growth in demand for optical network capacity and the sudden maturation of WDM technologies have fueled the development of long-haul optical network systems that transport tens to hundreds of wavelengths per fiber, with each wavelength modulated at 10 Gb/s or more. Micro-electromechanical systems devices are recognized to be the enabling technologies to build the next-generation cost-effective and reliable high capacity optical cross connects. While the promises of automatically reconfigurable networks and bit-rate-independent photonic switching are bright. This paper has presented the performance evaluation of optical cross connects for dense and ultra wide wavelength division multiplexing transmission systems. Type I (Torous), and Type II (Mesh Torous) transmission systems have been investigated under the same operating conditions.