Abstract

We describe an architecture and Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol for WDM networks. Our system is based on a broadcast star architecture and uses a single transceiver per node. The system uses an unslotted access protocol and a centralized scheduler to efficiently provide bandwidth-on- demand in WDM networks. To overcome the effects of propagation delays the scheduler measures the delays between the terminals and the hub and takes that delay into account when scheduling transmissions. Simple scheduling algorithms, based on a look-ahead capability, are used to overcome the effects of head-of-line blocking. Lastly, our system is extended to Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) with a layered architecture that uses synchronization between Local Area Network (LAN) hubs, while terminals remain unsynchronized.

© 1998 Optical Society of America