IMPACT OF NEW OPTICAL-TECHNOLOGY ON SPECTRALLY-SLICED ACCESS AND DATA-NETWORKS

High density wavelength division multiplexing (HD WDM) is being extens ively studied in the area of optical networking for applications in th e fields of computer interconnects, broadband services, local services or simple telephony. Unfortunately, the current high cost associated with WDM components limits the practicality of such schemes. In these cost-sensitive applications it would be preferable to use simpler opti cal components. The use of new technology in a version of high density spectral slicing is investigated. By using recently developed technol ogies, such as fibre Bragg reflection gratings and optical fibre ampli fiers, it is shown how high performance networks may be designed under the practical constraints of simplicity and low cost. Examples of net work topologies are presented for applications in the areas of access and data networks.