Hybrid wavelength and code division multiple access in optical networks

A review of schemes for multiple access in fiber optic networks shows that a hybrid of wavelength and code division multiple access (WCDMA) combines the best features of both. In particular, the hybrid scheme retains the large information carrying capacity of wavelength division multiple access (WDMA) and flexibility of code division multiple access (CDMA). In this paper WDMA, optical CDMA (OCDMA), and WCDMA networks are discussed. In OCDMA networks, concept of incoherent and coherent coding including inverse decoding and matched filter is introduced. The delay performance of both WDMA and WCDMA networks, under the simple suboptimum access protocols based on cyclic search, is computed. It has been shown quantitatively that tuning delay significantly affects the delay performance of both WDMA and WCDMA networks. Furthermore, delay performance of WCDMA networks is always better than the WDMA networks for the same tuning delay, load, and number of users.