Architecture and protocols for packet communication in optical WDM metropolitan-area ring networks using tunable wavelength add-drop multiplexers

摘要

We investigate the architecture of multi-wavelength optical ring networks suitable for deployment as metropolitan-area networks (MANs) using dynamic packet-communication protocols for medium-access control (MAC). Each node is equipped with a tunable of dynamic Wavelength Add-Drop Multiplexer, hereafter referred to as a DWADM, (and a SONET ADM) instead of tunable or fixed trans-ceivers. The property of a DEADM dictates that, at any given time, the input channel wavelength must be the same as the output channel wavelength. The DWADM is an emerging device which could turn out to be very inexpensive, so we investigate how to exploit its usage in a multi-wavelength ring network for dynamic packet transport. Our results show that the proposed protocols can solve the fairness problem inherent in such a system and achieve very good performance.