Abstract

In order to implement scalable and survivable optical submarine cable networks, a global network architecture introducing photonic cross-connect (PXC) equipment at landing stations as well as at points of presence (POP) or service access points (SAP) was proposed.^1,2 In this archi tecture, a PXC is expected to reduce footprint and power consumption of the terminal at landing stations compared to optical/electrical ones. Furthermore, since high speed interfaces of client equipment such as core IP-routers and multi-service platform equipment are becoming popular and available at a lower cost, it is considered more effective that the optical signal is directly transported between POPs or SAPs without the electrical glooming at landing stations.

© 2002 Optical Society of America