The LAMBDANET multiwavelength network: architecture, applications, and demonstrations

A summary is presented of research conducted over the last few years concerning the LAMBDANET multiwavelength optical network. Descriptions are given of some variations, including several applications based on these architectures. Experimental results demonstrate the technological feasibility of this approach. The LAMBDANET design incorporates three basic ingredients: (1) it associates a unique optical wavelength with each transmitting node in a cluster of nodes; (2) the physical topology is that of a broadcast star; and (3) each receiving node identifies transmitting nodes based on the transmission wavelength through wavelength demultiplexing. This network design features full connectivity among the nodes, large nonblocking throughput, data format transparency, and flexible control. The LAMBDANET network is used for both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint applications.>