Advantages of Optical Switching | Disadvantages of Optical Switching
This page covers advantages and disadvantages of Optical Switching. It mentions Optical Switching advantages or benefits and Optical Switching disadvantages or drawbacks. It also describes Optical Switching basics.
What is Optical Switching?
Introduction:
The process of controlling destination of individual optical signals through optical switches is
known as optical switching. In this process high bit rate optical signals are switched
between various optical lines.
Optical Switches are of various types viz. purely optical, purelt electronic and
hybrid of both. Following are the types of optical switching.
• Optical Space Division Switching
• Optical Wavelength Division Switching
• Optical Time Division Switching
• Optical Hybrid Switching
Refer Optical Switching basics and types>>, Optical Communication >> and What is Optical Switch >>.
Optical switching is further divided into following types.
• OCS-Optical Circuit Switching: It uses routers between source and destination for switching.
• OBS-Optical Burst Switching: The data in bursts form are switched optically. No buffering is used.
• OPS-Optical Packet Switching: The data in packets form are switched optically.
They are buffered before forwarded to the next hop.
Refer Optical Circuit Switching vs Optical Burst Switching vs Optical Packet Switching >>.
Each of these optical switching has their respective advantages and disadvantages as
described below.
Benefits or advantages of Optical Switching
Following are the benefits or advantages of Optical Switching:
➨Reduces congestion found in previous networks as optical signals are transmitted as
they occur.
➨Optical switches are more efficient and more faster compare to copper
switches. This makes optical switching faster and efficient.
➨Optical signals are not affected due to interference as found in EM wave propagation.
➨It provides better security as optical signals travel through fiber optic cables and not through air.
➨(Optical Circuit Switching:) natural QoS levels are supported, commercially available
➨(Optical Burst Switching:) Higher flexibility, Efficient utilization of network
➨(Optical Packet Switching:) Reduced size of node, very much flexible utilization of network,
very efficient network utilization
Drawbacks or disadvantages of Optical Switching
Following are the disadvantages of Optical Switching:
➨Installation requires expert technicians as well as specialized tools.
This increases cost of the project.
➨The environment should be free from pollution before laying of the optical
switches and other optical components in the network. This is time consuming and laborious task.
➨Optical switches are not suitable for low bandwidth transmission of data.
➨(Optical Circuit Switching:) high wavelength consumption, lower flexibility,
low utilization, larger node size
➨(Optical Burst Switching:) Effort for traffic aggregation is complex, Resilience more complex,
control is complex
➨(Optical Packet Switching:) Higher control complexity, requires more effort for the packet recording
Also refer advantages and disadvantages of fiber optic system >>.
Fiber Optic RELATED LINKS
DWDM system basics Tutorial on FTTH basics Single mode vs Multimode fiber Single mode step index vs multimode graded index fiber Types of WDM PDH versus SDH SONET versus SDH What is PDMA? What is WDM? SONET SDH tutorial SDH Networks SDH Frame structure SDH Modulation PDH over SONET PDH Frame structure
Optical Components Links
Optical Components Optical Isolator Optical Circulator Optical Amplifier Optical Filter Optical Coupler Optical MUX DEMUX Optical Equalizer Optical Switch Wavelength converter
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