WAVELENGTH MULTIPLEXED MULTI-HOP COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS WITH HIGH THROUGHPUT AND FAULT-TOLERANT CAPABILITY

THE TREMENDOUS BANDWIDTH OF OPTICAL FIBERS HAS LED TO THEIR USE IN OPTICAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND LOCAL AREA NETWORKS (LAN). TIME DIVISION MULTIPLEXING (TDM) AND CODE DIVISION MULTIPLEXING (CDM) ARE BOTH RESTRICTED BY ELECTRONICS AND ELECTROOPTICS, WHICH LIMIT THE THROUGHPUT TO LESS THAN 20 GB/S. WAVELENGTH DIVISION MULTIPLEXING WDM) ALLOWS HIGH LEVEL OF CONCURRENCY BETWEEN USERS AND COULD POTENTIALLY ACHIEVE 1TB/S NETWORK THROUGHPUT. HOWEVER, IMPLEMENTATION OF A LARGE NUMBER OF WAVELENGTH MULTIPLEXED CHANNELS IS PRESENTLY BOTH COSTLY AND DIFFICULT BECAUSE OF TECHNOLOGICAL PROBLEMS WITH TUNABLE LASER DIODES AND FILTERS. NEW ARCHITECTURES BASED ON MULTI-HOP NETWORKS THAT COMBINE PARALLEL PROCESSING WITH EFFICIENT PACKET SWITCHED LANS CAN ACHIEVE A HIGH LEVEL OF CONCURRENCY WITH VERY FEW TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHOUGHS. PHYSICAL OPTICS CORP. PROPOSES TO COMBINE A MULTI-HOP NETWORK ARCHITECTURE WITH WAVELENGTH MULTIPLEXED WAVELENGTHS AND YET CAN ACHIEVE HIGH THROUGHPUT. THE NETWORK IS FAULT TOLERANT, DUE TO ISTS REDUNDANT PATHS. IN THE PHASE I PROGRAM THE OPERATION OF THE WAVELENGTH MULTIPLEXED MULTI-HOP NETWORK WILL BE STUDIED. A DEMONSTRATION OF SIGNAL TRANSMISSION USING WDM COMPONENTS WILL SUPPORT OUR THEORTICAL STUDEIS.