Novel wavelength-division-multiplexed ring network architecture using optical path technology for multiple services and simple media access control procedure

A novel WDM ring network architecture that employs an attractive integrated-optic arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) add-drop multiplexer (ADM) is proposed that fully uses a variety of optical path technologies. Single-hopped multiwavelength looped-bus optical paths establish multipoint-to-multipoint (M-M) communication, while conventional ringtype optical paths realize point-to-point and broadcast communication. Optical paths for OAM & C can also be established on a multihop basis with no additional wavelengths. All these optical paths can be established by a simple AWG-ADM in a node. A simple MAC procedure for M-M communication is proposed, and its performance is simulated. This procedure switches between the random with minimum slot distance limitation scheme and the slot assignment scheme. Simulation results confirm its fairness as evaluated by the metric of delay variance and its small delay. Network survivability is realized by the optical loop-back (LB) method.