الفهرس 
Cover EnglishOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Optical Packet Switching (OPS) is a promising technology to enable next generation high-speed IP networks. One of the main components in an OPS network is the optical switch architecture that provides the basic functionality of switching packets from input ports to the desired output ports while maintaining data in the optical domain. In asynchronous OPS networks, contention may arise when two or more packets need to be directed to the same output source, leading to higher packet loss and thus lower switching performance. In the literature, three techniques were explored to deal with contention in asynchronous OPS networks, namely: optical buffering using Fiber Delay Lines (FDLs), wavelength conversion using optical Wavelength Converters (WCs), and space deflection using sophisticated routing algorithms. However, using these techniques in isolation may necessitate the use of large numbers of FDLs or WCs, or slow and complicated routing algorithms, which can be economically and/or technologically infeasible. Few research efforts have focused on the study of combining some of these solutions to achieve better performance with a reduced complexity. In this thesis, we focus on the design of efficient optical switch architectures with reduced complexity to resolve packet contention in asynchronous OPS networks. In particular, the main contributions of this thesis can be summarized as follows: (1) propose a new FDL-based switch architecture that achieves the same performance as that of best known architectures but with a reduced hardware complexity, (2) conduct a detailed study of the impact and complexity of using Win the design of optical switch architectures, and (3) develop and analyze a nhybrid OPS switch architecture that has a smaller packet loss, average switchidelay, and hardware complexity compared to exiting optical switch architectures Our analysis shows that, the proposed architectures possess some interesting properties as compared to existing designs. For example, for the sproposed hybrid architecture requires 60% less FDLs, and wavelength converters than that used in best known architectures.