The very broad bandwidth of low-loss optical transmission in a single-mode fiber and the recent improvements in single-frequency tunable lasers have stimulated significant advances in dense wavelength division multiplexed optical networks This technology, including wavelength-sensitive optical switching and routing elements and passive optical elements, has made it possible to consider the use of wavelength as another dimension, in addition to time and space, in network and switch design The independence of optical signals at different wavelengths makes this a natural choice for multiple-access networks, for applications which benefit from shared transmission media, and for networks in which very large throughputs are required Recent progress in multiwavelength networks are reviewed, some of the limitations which affect the performance of such networks are discussed, and examples of several network and switch proposals based on these ideas are presented Discussed also are critical technologies that are essential to progress in this field >

Dense wavelength division multiplexing networks: principles and applications

Wavelength conversion has been proposed for use in wavelength-division multiplexed networks to improve efficiency. This study highlights systems challenges and performance issues which need to be addressed in order to incorporate wavelength conversion effectively. A review/survey of the enabling technologies, design methods, and analytical models used in wavelength-convertible networks is provided.

/pdf/wavelength-conversion-in-wdm-networking-4ugbyr17pp.pdf

Wavelength conversion in WDM networking

Wavelength-division multiplexing is emerging as the dominant technology in future all-optical network. To efficiently use the wavelengths, wavelength converters are employed for a circuit-switched optical network in which a circuit can change its wavelength to resolve wavelength conflicts and to reuse the wavelengths. To improve the efficiency, a few converters are provided and shared by the incoming circuits in the share-per-node or the share-per-link wavelength-convertible switch. A heuristic algorithm for dynamic routing is used to reduce the number of converters. Performance gain in call blocking probability and fairness and in the reduction of the number of converters are shown

A Wavelength-Convertible Optical Network

The different approaches being considered to build high-capacity lightwave networks are described. Two kinds of lightwave network architectures are examined: broadcast-and-select networks and wavelength-routing networks. A comparison of the two shows that broadcast-and-select networks may be more suitable for local area networks (LANs) and metropolitan area networks (MANs), while wavelength-routing networks are suitable for wide area networks (WANs). The overall network may then be a combination of broadcast subnets interconnected by a point-to-point wavelength-routing network. >

Multiwavelength lightwave networks for computer communication

A communications network has a plurality of nodes interconnected by an optical transmission medium. The transmission medium is capable of a carrying a plurality of wavelengths organized into bands. A filter at each node for drops a band associated therewith and passively forwards other bands through the transmission medium. A device is provided at each node for adding a band to the transmission medium. Communication can be established directly between a pair of nodes in the network sharing a common band without the active intervention of any intervening node. This allows the network to be protocol independent. Also, the low losses incurred by the passive filters permit relatively long path lengths without optical amplification.

WDM optical network with passive pass-through at each node

A photonic wavelength-division switching system using semiconductor tunable wavelength filters is proposed. A switching system using wavelength switches and multistage switching networks is discussed. A crucial point in developing this switching system is to achieve a large number of wavelength-division channels. The potential of 100 wavelength-division channels in such switching systems is estimated, based on InP optical integrated circuits. A wavelength network synchronization which permits the network to utilize such a large number of wavelength-division channels without wavelength misalignment and drift is proposed. An eight-channel wavelength-division switching experiment, using phase-shift-controlled distributed feedback laser diodes as tunable wavelength filters, is reported. >

A photonic wavelength-division switching system using tunable laser diode filters

A coherent photonic wavelength-division (WD) switching system, utilizing a coherent wavelength switch ( lambda switch), is proposed. In the proposed coherent lambda switch, the tunable wavelength filter function is accomplished using coherent optical detection with a wavelength tunable local oscillator. The coherent photonic WD switching system has the following features; (1) low crosstalk switching for dense WDM signal, and (2) large line capacity capability. Design considerations show that 32 wavelength division channels can be available with a coherent lambda switch. It is also shown that a broadband metropolitan-area-network with over 1000 line capacity is possible, using a multistage connection in the coherent lambda switches. The switching function of the coherent lambda switch is demonstrated in a two-channel wavelength-synchronized switching experiment, using 8-GHz-spaced, 280-Mb/s optical FSK signals. >

A coherent photonic wavelength-division switching system for broad-band networks

A photonic wavelength-division (WD) switching system, utilizing a coherent wavelength switch, is proposed. Design consideration shows that over 1000 line capacity is possible, using a multi-stage switching network with 32 WD channels. The switching function was confirmed through two channel switching experiments, using 8 GHz-spaced 280 Mb/s optical FSK signals.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel3/1241/3061/00093542.pdf

A coherent photonic wavelength-division switching system for broadband networks

A 1.5 μm tunable wavelength filter was studied. A 1.5 μ λ/4-shifted distributed feedback laser diode (DFB LD) was applied as an effective single wavelength selective filter. A wavelength switching experiment in a 100 Mbit/s two-channel wavelength multiplexed system was successfully demonstrated by using the tunable λ/4 shifted DFB LD filter.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel1/2220/282/00005628.pdf

1.5 μm λ/4-shifted DFB LD filter and 100 Mbit/s two-channel wavelength signal switching

A coherent optical frequency-division-multiplexing (FDM) experimental system for an optical CATV distribution service has been developed. This system employs a channel frequency spacing locked optical FDM transmitter and a random access optical heterodyne receiver. In the transmitter, ten 1.54- mu m wavelength tunable distributed-Bragg-reflector laser-diode (DBR LD) modules were FSK modulated with a 400-Mb/s PN pattern. A reference pulse method is used for channel space control. Individual channel spacings for ten LDs are stabilized to 8 GHz. The random access optical heterodyne receiver is realized with a wavelength tunable local DBR LD, polarization diversity reception technique, and random access automatic frequency controller. A current address method realizes the random access function. The results of a ten-channel FDM transmission experiment carried out to evaluate these techniques are presented. It is estimated that over 80 channel high-definition TV signals can be distributed to 2000 subscribers with 500-GHz frequency tunable DBR LD. The feasibility of expanding the subscriber number to over 10000 was confirmed by an experiment with a traveling-wave optical amplifier. >

N. Shimosaka

Papers

A photonic wavelength-division switching system using tunable laser diode filters

A coherent photonic wavelength-division switching system for broad-band networks

A coherent photonic wavelength-division switching system for broadband networks

1.5 μm λ/4-shifted DFB LD filter and 100 Mbit/s two-channel wavelength signal switching

A coherent optical FDM CATV distribution system