Theoretical Analyses of Lightpath Blocking Performance in CO-OFDM Optical Networks with/without Spectrum Conversion

This paper provides the first analysis of the impact of spectrum conversion on the lightpath blocking performance in the CO-OFDM optical networks. Two analytical models for the cases of using and not using spectrum convertors are developed for an H-hop end-to-end lightpath and a network, respectively. Numerical results show that the use of spectrum convertors can significantly improve the lightpath blocking performance.