A parametric wavelength interchanging cross-connect (WIXC) architecture

This letter presents an architecture for a wavelength interchanging cross-connect (WIXC) using parametric wavelength converters. The architecture exploits the unique properties of the difference frequency generating (DFG) parametric wavelength converter, including its transparency to signal format and its ability to convert multiple wavelengths simultaneously, The WIXC is shown to be scalable and rearrangeably nonblocking. Furthermore, connection setup is performed by the well-known looping algorithm used for Benes networks.