Abstract

The relatively slow tuning speed of current tunable optical devices makes it difficult to build fast packet-switched networks based on wavelength tunability.¹ Many approaches to network control and transmission coordination in WDM networks have been put forth to overcome this difficulty.^2,3 STARNET, an experimental multigigabit-per-second WDM LAN being developed at Stanford University,⁴ avoids the requirement of fast wavelength tunability and facilitates network control by creating two logical subnetworks, a 2.488 Gbit/s tunable circuit-switched subnetwork and a 125-Mbit/s FDDI-compatible, fixed-tuned, packet-switched ring subnetwork, on a single physical star topology.

© 1993 Optical Society of America