An overview of lightwave packet networks

The unique systems opportunities offered by, and the unique systems constraints imposed by, lightwave technology as it applies to the field of distributed packet networks are examined. Single-channel and star topology approaches are first considered. Terabit-capacity lightwave networks are discussed, covering both wavelength-division and time-division multiplexing. Multichannel multihop lightwave networks are then considered, and a particular implementation, the ShuffleNet, is described, and its performance, as well as some simple addressing and routing schemes, is discussed