QUADRO-STAR - A HIGH-PERFORMANCE OPTICAL WDM STAR NETWORK

This paper proposes an original approach to controlling WDM passive op tical stars, termed queuing arrivals for delayed reception operation ( Quadro). In WDM stars the fundamental problem of receiver conflicts le ads to severe performance degradation. In current solutions conflicts are prevented by scheduling transmissions or resolved by retransmissio ns. Both approaches waste bandwidth and involve electronic processing and buffering. The proposed approach is conceptually different in intr oducing a local conflict resolution mechanism at each receiver incorpo rating delay lines. This solution brings optical star networks a step closer to an all-optical realization. In addition, it allows an almost total utilization of the channels, as obtainable until now only by TD M control. Contrary to TDM, however, the proposed solution does not su ffer performance degradation under heterogeneous traffic conditions an d increasing number of nodes. It is thus unique in offering the potent ial of an all-optical solution providing at the same time high through put, low delay, small buffer requirements, and robustness under all tr affic conditions.