A. Pavan et al., Scalability of wavelength division multiplexed optical passive star networks with range limited tunable transceivers, PH NETW COM, 1(2), 1999, pp. 125-146
The number of stations attached to a single optical passive star is limited
by current state of the art in optical technology. Also, the wavelength ra
nge of tunable optical transceivers is limited by current technology. Many
high performance computing applications require the use of large size regul
ar topologies for communication between computing nodes. Scalability of pas
sive star networks built with these two limitations becomes an important is
sue for building larger networks. This is the subject of our study in this
paper. In a previous related work we explored the design issues for network
s built on a single passive star employing transceivers of a limited tuning
range. Here we extend that study by considering the problem of connecting
several optical passive stars, each embedded with a given virtual topology,
to create larger aggregate networks. The design issues are analyzed and a
number of design rules are proposed for building such aggregate networks. W
e study the scalability of embedded optical passive stars by considering th
e most commonly employed virtual topologies-complete graph, mesh and hyperc
ube.