A Fast LD Wavelength Switching with Rapid Stabilizing Control for WDM Network

Abstract

Recently, requirements have been increasing for large throughput asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) cell based networks, such as ‘transfer networks’ [1] and local area networks (LANs) [2]. However, pursuing larger throughput only by improving transmission speed cannot satisfy future requirements. Wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks are promising for increasing throughput. For effective utilization of this enlarged throughput, a ring topology with appropriate fairness control (e.g. [2]) is preferable to a star topology [3], considering the latter's inevitably complicated contention-free access control (for example, a token passing protocol) that imposes a delay on each cell. Recently, we have proposed a WDM ring optical network for ATM signals with high throughput and simple access protocol [3]. In this paper, a novel scheme is proposed and experimentally confirmed for fast laser diode (LD) wavelength switching with rapid stabilizing to its predetermined wavelength, which is the key technology for the proposed network.