Optimization of multiple-stage optical interconnection networks

An analysis of the cost and complexity of multiple-stage optical interconnection networks is presented. Because of the high cost of photonic switching elements from which these networks are composed, the radix (degree of the switching nodes) of a simple banyan network is important in determining total network cost. For most switching node cost models, it is shown that 3 /spl times/ 3 switching nodes can actually be more efficient than 2 /spl times/ 2 ones.