A wavelength division multiple access protocol for high-speed local area networks with a passive star topology

In this paper a multiple access protocol is proposed for a system consisting of many high-speed bursty traffic stations interconnected via an optical passive star coupler. Each station has access over a range of wavelengths. Time is divided intp fixed-sized slots. A station must reserve a wavelength first, then transmits the data on that wavelength. New stations can join the system anytime without any system reconfiguration. Broadcast and multicast traffic can also be easily supported. The performance of both the infinite and finite population cases has been modeled and analyzed. Numerical results show that low delay and high throughput (larger than the electronic speed of a single station) can be achieved. The analysis also shows that the best performance is obtained when the capacities of the reservation channels and the data channels are balanced.