BASEBAND/BROADBAND FAULT TOLERANT FIBER OPTIC LOCAL AREA NETWORK FOR SAFENET SHIPBOARD COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

A FIBER OPTIC LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN) DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IS PROPOSED TO PROVIDE FAULT TOLERANT, SECURE SHIPBOARD COMMUNICATIONS. THE LAN WILL UTILIZE PHOENIX DIGITAL'S FAULT TOLERANT, "SELF-HEALING" FIBER OPTIC COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY, IN CONJUNCTION WITH GTE'S BIREFRINGENT WAVELENGTH DIVISION MULTIPLEXER (BWDM) TECHNOLOGY. THE BWDM ALLOWS MULTIPLE OPTICAL COMMUNICATION CHANNELS IN A SPECIFIC FIBER TRANSMISSION WINDOW TO BE SENT OVER A SINGLE FIBER, THUS ENABLIG DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS TO BE ENCODED BY WAVELENGTH AND TRANSMITTED OVER THE SAME PHYSICAL NETWORK CARRIER. SUBCARRIER MULTIPLEXING WILL BE USED TO PROVIDE A METHOD FOR ALLOCATING VOICE CHANNELS TO THE NETWORK. WHILE THIS TECHNOLOGY HAS BEEN DEVELOPED FOR TELECOMMUNICATION APPLICATIONS BY GTE CORPORATION, PHOENIX DIGITAL HAS RECEIVED A LICENSE TO APPLY THIS ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY TO MILITARY LAN COMMUNICATIONS. THE PROJECT OBJECTIVES WILL BE TO SPECIFY, DESIGN AND BUILD A WORKING PROTOTYPE MODEL OF AN OPTICAL LAN TO DEMONSTRATE HOW ADMINISTRATIVE VOICE, TACTICAL VOICE, AND CONTROL/DATA CAN BE ENCODED AND COMMUNICATED OVER MULTIPLE OPTICAL WAVELENGTHS IN A SINGLE OPTICAL CONDUCTOR. NEW, HEURISTIC TECHNIQUES FOR PROVIDING HIGH SPEED COMMUNICAITON WRAPBACK FAULT TOLERANCE WILL ALSO BE INCLUDED IN THE DEMONSTRATION. THE PHASE I DEMONSTRATION WILL PROVIDE THE PROOF OF CONCEPT NECESSARY TO PROCEED WITH A PHASE II IMPLEMENTATION OF A FAULT TOLERANT, BROADBAND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY, COMPATIBLE WITH NAVY COMMUNICATION STANDARDS SAFENET I AND II.