Terabit Lightwave Networks: The Multihop Approach

For multiuser communications networks, lightwave technology offers the potential to supply a pool of capacity — to be shared among users — far above that provided by any alternative technology. However, the bandwidth limitation of the electro-optic converters needed to attach each user to the optical medium prevents any one user from accessing more than a tiny fraction of the overall capacity. This paper discusses the problems with conventional approaches for tapping the capacity contained within the optical communications band. It then proposes a new network architecture that permits tapping lightwave's vast capacity potential without requiring a technological breakthrough. With this approach, it becomes possible to create networks that offer hundreds of thousands of gigabits-per-second total capacity, to be shared among users, each limited to a peak rate of 1 Gb/s.