Comparative analysis of power consumption in asynchronous wavelength modular optical switching fabrics

Next-generation optical routers will be designed to support the flexibility required by Future Internet services and, at the same time, to overcome the power consumption bottleneck which appears to limit throughput scalability in today routers. A model to evaluate average power consumption in asynchronous optical switching fabrics is here presented to compare these architectures with other synchronous and asynchronous solutions. The combination of wavelength modular switching fabrics with low spatial complexity and asynchronous operation is demonstrated to be the most power-efficient solution among those considered which employ wavelength converters, through presentation and discussion of a thorough set of numerical results.