Multiaccess processor interconnection using subcarrier and wavelength division multiplexing

Abstract

The optical technology contributes significantly to high speed long distance communications and local area networks (LANs). The wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and the subcarrier multiplexing (SCM) are two technologies widely employed to fully utilize the huge bandwidth available on optical fibers and alleviate the speed mismatch between the components in the electronic domain and those in the optical domain. In this paper, we extend these technologies to parallel processing multicomputers. The design philosophy is to incorporate advantages of both the WDM and the SCM into the multiaccess processor interconnection for multicomputers. The objective is to provide high bandwidth and high data rate under the physical limits and the performance requirements. A novel interprocessor architecture, the receiver oriented architecture (ROA), is proposed. Based on the passive optical star coupler, the ROA has been implemented and referred as ROA-SC which is single-hop accessible and optically self-routing. The implementation also speeds up the processing in the electronic domain. Besides, the presentation includes three media access protocols for both the reservation and the preallocation approaches. Extensive analysis has been performed and the proposed ROA-SC is found to have very good modularity and scalability so that it is very suitable for practical applications.