A novel optical crossconnect architecture, capable for tens of terabit throughput and allowing the integration of wavelength and space switching, is presented for both WP and VWP networks. The architecture offers significant advantages in terms of crosstalk performance and node complexity. In the architecture, there are no crossovers and crosspoints. Therefore, the signal-to-crosstalk ratio per wavelength channel can be very high since each channel is processed independently from the others. This will also allow to introduce other all-optical techniques like adding/dropping of OTDM channels as well as optical regeneration. The proposed architecture is wavelength and link modular and particularly suitable for crossconnects with a very large number of wavelength channels. Performance aspects of a single as well as of a cascade of crossconnects have been simulated using a simulation tool.
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