Lj. Stville et al., DEVELOPMENTS IN WTDM TECHNOLOGY FOR HIGH-CAPACITY OPTICAL STUDIO NETWORKS, Optical and quantum electronics, 26(5), 1994, pp. 190000483-190000496
This paper reviews results achieved in high-capacity optical networkin
g for television studios under RACE projects 1036 and 2001. A network
based on wavelength- and time-division multiplexing (WTDM) has been de
monstrated, which, using 16 wavelengths, provides a total capacity of
39.8 Gbit s-1. We summarize previously reported results obtained in th
e system test-bed, which demonstrate the distribution of uncompressed
digital video signals ranging from PAL at 142 Mbit s-1 to HDTV at 1.1
5 Gbit s-1. The process of further developing this technology for a pi
lot installation has established that it will be applicable not only t
o central routeing within a television studio but also to resilient ne
twork provision and the interconnection of remote sites. We review how
network resilience is achieved by multiple interconnected star archit
ectures and outline how recent results with integrated star couplers s
uggest that these designs can be delivered at low cost. We report new
experiments demonstrating an optically amplified network over a commer
cially installed 36-km link, thus confirming the feasibility of a long
-reach routeing system. We also report results illustrating how lithiu
m niobate devices can perform optical switching on the wavelength mult
iplex and thus offer potential advantages in system transparency and t
hroughput. Our conclusion is that we have confirmed the feasibility of
the WTDM concept and demonstrated its potential for wider application
.