A class of centralized high‐performance protocols for single‐hop lightwave networks

摘要

A new class of protocols for WDM star networks is introduced. According to the proposed protocols, two or more stations share each wavelength and transmit their packets in a random access fashion. An array of tunable electro-optic filters or tunable wavelength converters, placed at the network hub, allows at most one packet per wavelength to pass to the star coupler, at each time slot. Furthermore, the selection of the passing packets is implemented in such a way that receiver conflicts are avoided. When wavelength converters are used instead of electro-optic filters, the hub is capable of uniformly distributing the incoming packets to the available wavelengths. Thus, the load is balanced between the wavelengths, resulting in a further performance improvement. The performance of the proposed protocols is studied via analytical and simulation results which indicate that a WDM star network operating under these protocols achieves a high performance under any load conditions. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.