A WDM cross-connected star multihop optical network

Abstract

The authors propose a star topology for multihop lightwave networks in which the conventional N*N passive star coupler is replaced by fixed wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) cross-connects. The proposed topology overcomes three major limitations of the conventional star topology. First, it reduces the number of wavelengths needed in a (p,k) ShuffleNet from kp/sup k+1/ wavelengths in the conventional topology to p wavelengths in the proposed one. Second, the signal power loss due to the 1/N power splitting at the star coupler no longer exists in the WDM cross-connects and, therefore, the restriction on the supported number of users by the star network is alleviated. Third, it completely eliminates the need for wavelength filtering at the input to the receivers, as is the case in the conventional star topology. The use of 2*2 WDM lapped couplers as a cheap WDM cross-connect for a (2,k) ShuffleNet is investigated. A p*p star coupler followed by p fiber Fabry-Perot filters can be used as a p*p WDM cross-connect for a (p,k) ShuffleNet at the expense of using p/sup 2/ rather than p wavelengths. >