Abstract

Extremely high bit rates can be used in transmission by each node in space-switching transparent optical networks since nodes are connected by dedicated fiber links. The noise introduced by optical amplifiers imposes an upper limit on the maximum usable bit rate.¹ The electronic control of the switching nodes may also limit the bit rate since routing computations must be performed within a packet’s duration. Extremely simple node structures are thus desirable, these node structures have low loss and simple control while still providing good throughput- delay performance.

© 1994 Optical Society of America