All-optical implementations for high-capacity TDMA networks

In this article we show how optical technology can allow the design of new optical devices that are able to perform some network functions in order to treat very high bit rate signals (100 Gbit/s). The multiplexing technique that we take into account is the Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), and the network functions we consider are multiplexing, demultiplexing, synchronization, packet decoding, routing, and resolution of packet contention.

In order to show how these new optical devices can improve the network performance we propose two different network topologies: the first concerns a TDMA star network where the signal information is simultaneously broadcast to all users, while the second is a multihop network. The former is useful mainly for circuit switching, while the latter is suitable for packet switching.

Soliton propagation is used in order to avoid the problem of fiber chromatic dispersion.