Abstract

(Invited) The unprecedented progress in computer and lightwave technologies stimulated much of the recent interests in gigabit-per-second wide-area computer networks. With the widespread deployment of single-mode fiber by telecommunication carriers, it is now technically feasible to interconnect a large variety of computing resources in wide-area networks offering at least three orders of magnitude higher capacities than those provided by copper-based links. Gigabit-per-second wide-area networks privde a heterogeneous environment that will include supercomputers and parallel computers, in addition to the more conventional resources of workstations, graphic displays, I/O systems, and application-specific computing devices.

© 1991 Optical Society of America