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Abstract Optical Packet Switching (OPS) is a promising technology to enable next-generation high-speed II networks. One of the main components in an OPS network is the optical interconnect that provides the basic functionality of directing packets from input ports to the desired output ports, while maintaining data in the optical domain. In OPS networks, contention may arise when two or more packets need to be directed to the same output port, leading to packet loss and thus lower switching performance. Traditional OPS architectures use two techniques to resolve the contention: optical buffering using Fiber Delay Lines (FDLs); and conversion using wavelength converters. Advances in all-optical technologies enable the wavelength exchanging phenomenon that can be used to develop new optical interconnect architectures. These new architectures combine simulta- neous switching and conversion domain in both space and wavelength domains, where incoming packets are directed to their destinations smoothly. Moreover, the use of wavelength exchanging can reduce contention and complexity of the interconnect. In this thesis, we propose two buffer-less OPS architectures, blocking and nonblocking, using the phenomenon of wavelength exchanging. The proposed blocking architecture improves the Packet Loss Probability (PLP), as well as the conversion and switching complexity compared to conventional OPS architectures. In particular, the proposed architecture reduces the conversion complexity by 94%. Moreover, the new architecture uses only I % of the switches in existing architectures. On the other hand, the proposed nonblocking architecture reduces both conversion and switching complexity by 50% and 90% respectively compared to traditional architectures using the same number of ports. |