Photonic packet WDM ring networks architecture and performance

This article reviews various WDM ring architectures and pays special attention to their implementation in the metropolitan environment. A number of possible network architectures as well as protocols are reviewed. The article also proposes and analyses a WDM slotted-ring network architecture with nodes that use one fixed transmitter and fixed receivers. Used as a metropolitan access network, it is shown through simulation how a simple slotted MAC protocol can be implemented in this network to achieve efficient bandwidth utilization. Throughput, delay and packet dropping probability results are presented under Poisson and self-similar traffic.