QUADRO-STAR - A HIGH-PERFORMANCE OPTICAL WDM STAR NETWORK

This paper proposes an original approach to controlling WDM passive optical stars, termed queuing arrivals for delayed reception operation (Quadro). In WDM stars the fundamental problem of receiver conflicts leads to severe performance degradation. In current solutions conflicts are prevented by scheduling transmissions or resolved by retransmissions. Both approaches waste bandwidth and involve electronic processing and buffering. The proposed approach is conceptually different in introducing a local conflict resolution mechanism at each receiver incorporating delay lines. This solution brings optical star networks a step closer to an all-optical realization. In addition, it allows an almost total utilization of the channels, as obtainable until now only by TDM control. Contrary to TDM, however, the proposed solution does not suffer performance degradation under heterogeneous traffic conditions and increasing number of nodes. It is thus unique in offering the potential of an all-optical solution providing at the same time high throughput, low delay, small buffer requirements, and robustness under all traffic conditions.