Reconfigurable wavelength routed WDM networks for high speed local and wide area networks.

摘要

This dissertation studies reconfigurable wavelength routed WDM networks for both local and wide are networks. Reconfigurable wavelength routed WDM networks can be used to increase the capacity of today's telecommunication networks to meet the demands of the future. First a local area network architecture is presented that is targeted to high end workstations and/or supercomputers for use in a clustered computing environment. This system, called L IGHTNING, is a hierarchical structure that allows bandwidth to be reallocated to different levels of the hierarchy based on the traffic characteristics of the network. The architecture is presented and then a method for dynamically reconfiguring the network based on traffic measurements is described. The performance of the system is then examined via simulation and the results for a static system are compared to those for a reconfigurable system.; The concepts of reconfigurability and wavelength routing are then extended to the wide area. A new architecture is presented that is targeted at replacing the current SONET based wide area networks. The architecture uses a very simple wavelength selective device to create multiple interconnected rings. Unlike current ring networks the connections are allowed to exist across multiple rings to improve routability. Furthermore, the network is reconfigurable and connections can be rerouted to increase system capacity. The performance of this new architecture is then examined via simulation and the performance of the reconfiguration methodology is analyzed.; In addition to the theoretical and simulation based studies described above, this thesis contains an experimental element. In particular, a high speed network interface has been designed for wavelength multiplexed networks. The interface is based on FPGA technology to allow experimentation both with the topology and the media access protocols employed. The goal of the testbed is to provide a means of gathering experimental data on WDM topologies and protocols.