SECURE OPTICAL NETWORK ARCHITECTURES UTILIZING WAVELENGTH HOPPING TIME SPREADING CODES

A hybrid wavelength hopping/time spreading scheme is proposed for use in secure optical network applications. Featuring a perfect autocorrel ation function and optical orthogonality, hybrid systems can offer tru ly asynchronous communications with an increased system throughput, Th e security aspects of such a network are investigated and it is shown that a properly configured network can offer unprecedented levels of s ecurity, Calculation of the number of code combinations reveals that m any years will be needed to investigate all in order to penetrate the network.