Comparative Study of Introducing Wavelength Converters in Pre-configured (P)-Cycle

Abstract

To protect wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) networks, pre-configured protection cycles (p-cycles) found to be very speedy and efficient. To implement p-cycles in any network, we may or may not deploy wavelength converters. As the cost of wavelength converters is quite high, fully equipping the networks with wavelength converters makes it very costly. So, instead of making the network 100% wavelength convertible, we are making network convertible in some variation. We compare the spare capacity in terms of route km of fiber length and the number of wavelength converter required for the same. We ensure that making the network wavelength convertible to some extent, i.e., 50% also can perform better without much affecting spare capacity. Also, the hardware cost of converters can be reduced much with lesser use of wavelength converters.