DEVELOPMENTS IN WTDM TECHNOLOGY FOR HIGH-CAPACITY OPTICAL STUDIO NETWORKS

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 .