A packet-switched WDM passive optical star based metropolitan area network

摘要

A cost-efficient metropolitan area network (MAN) based on a two-level structure is introduced. The physical topology of each level is a wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) passive star. The system design incorporates both the restrictions imposed by the unique features of the metropolitan environment, such as a relatively large number of nodes and large propagation delays, and the hardware limitations dictated by the WDM technology, such as a limited number of transceivers per node and the unavailability of wide-range rapidly tunable transceivers. A multicontrol channel-based protocol that is particularly suitable for packet switched communications is proposed. An analytical model is presented, and the system performance in terms of throughput and average delay is obtained.