WDM MULTI-HOP LANS USING EFFICIENCY HOLOGRAPHIC MATRICES

UTILIZING THE HUGE POTENTIAL BANDWIDTH OF OPTICAL FIBER BASED NETWORKS REQUIRES DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGIES WHICH ENABLE A LARGE NUMBER OF USERS TO COMMUNICATE SIMULTANEOUSLY OVER A LARGE AREA AT HIGH BIT RATES. UNFORTUNATELY, TDM AND CDMA ARE BOTH RESTRICTED BY ELECTRONICS WHICH PLACES A FUNDAMENTAL LIMITATION OF APPROXIMATELY 1-10 GB/S ON THROUGHPUT. TRADITIONAL WDM, HOWEVER, ALLOWS A HIGH LEVEL OF CONCURRENCY BETWEEN USERS AND COULD POTENTIALLY ACHIEVE 10-100 GB/S NETWORK THROUGHPUT. TECHNOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES IN ACHIEVING BROAD-BAND TUNABLE LASER DIODES, OPTICAL FILTERS, AND DIFFICULTIES IN STABLIZING THE WAVELENGTHS IN GREAT NUMBERS OF WIDELY DISTRIBUTED LASER DIODES MAKE THIS SCHEME APPEAR AT LEAST 5-10 YEARS AWAY. INNOVATIVE IDEAS IN MULTI-HOP NETWORKS COMBINING THE PARALLELISM OF PARALLEL PROCESSING WITH THE EFFICIENCY OF PACKET SWITCHED LANS ALLOW A HIGH LEVEL OF CONCURRENCY WITH FEW OF THE FUNDAMENTAL OR TECHNOLOGICAL LIMITATIONS THAT PLAGUE THE ABOVE APPROACHES. POC'S APPROACH COMBINES THE FLEXIBILITY OF FREE-SPACE OR WAVEGUIDE-BASED HOLOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES WITH THE MULTI-HOP NETWORK DESIGN TO REDUCE POWER LOSSES AND TO INCREASE INTERCONNECTIVITY. THIS LEADS TO INCREASED ROBUSTNESS, LOWER COST, AND INCREASED MAINTAINABILITY DUE TO A NUMBER OF REDUNDANT PATHS AND THE LIMITING OF THE NUMBER OF LASER DIODE WAVELENGTHS NEEDED. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS - WDM MULTI-HOP NETWORKS HAVE WIDE RANGING APPLICABILITY TO BOTH MILITARY AND COMMERCIAL MARKETS. THESE DESIGNS PRESENT A VIRTUALLY LIMITLESS EXPANSION AS A SUPER HIGH SPEED FIBER OPTIC BACKBONE BOTH IN MAN APPLICATIONS AND TACTICAL/STRATEGIC MILITARY NETWORKS. KEY WORDS - FIBER NETWORKS, MULTI-HOP NETWORKS, WDM, TB/S NETWORKS