WONDER: OVERVIEW OF A PACKET-SWITCHED MAN ARCHITECTURE

摘要

This paper presents the architecture of WONDER, an advanced ring-based WDM optical packet network designed for high capacity metro environments. The network prototype is currently being developed at PhotonLab in Torino, Italy, by several Italian research groups, thanks to a financing by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR). It represents an evolution over a similar ring based prototype, named "RingO" which was previously realized in 2001-2002. The WONDER network architecture elaborates on the effectiveness of optics with respect to electronics, trying to identify an optimal mix of the two technologies. We present network architecture, physical topology and node structure of the WONDER prototype, as well as its MAC protocol. The main contribution of this article is the identification of an innovative optical network architecture, which is feasible and cost effective with technologies available today, and can be a valid alternative to more consolidated solutions in metro applications.