OPTICAL-TIME DIVISION MULTIPLEXING FOR FUTURE HIGH-CAPACITY NETWORK APPLICATIONS

Future networks operating in excess of 10 Gbit/s are likely to require optical multiplexing to obtain such high capacities, linking all majo r nodes in the inland network. The implementation of optical fibre amp lifiers instead of optoelectronic regenerators would future-proof the transmission fabric, permitting capacity upgrades through modification s to terminal equipment. Optical nonlinearity will form an ultimate li mit to the capacity of simple wavelength division multiplexed systems. In the longer term, upgrading to an optical time division multiplexed (OTDM) super-trunk network would provide a core transport layer of ve ry high capacity so that services requiring large bandwidth on demand could be enabled. The current status of OTDM systems is surveyed and a scenario is developed for the implementation of OTDM networks within the framework of the synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH).