Node architecture and protocol of a packet-switched dense WDMA metropolitan area network

This paper proposes a new node architecture and protocol for a wavelength d ivision multiple access (WDMA) packet-switched metropolitan area network. T he network operates on a dual-bus topology and the tunable-transmitter and fixed-receiver scheme is adopted to facilitate data multiaccess, The networ k protocol runs on a cycle mechanism and the cycle length can be adaptively changed according to the data traffic, thus provides high throughput. The photonic implementation of the proposed network architecture and network no des are discussed and a new packet-signaling scheme is proposed to avoid da ta collision during multiaccess, An experimental demonstration is also pres ented to show its feasibility.