Network Interface Design for Multi-Gbit/s WDM Optical Networks

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We report on the design of a distributed, small, fast packet switched network interface that provides electronic buffering and switching for the data channel in reconfigurable multi-Gbps WDM optical networks. The high-speed interface has been constructed and tested in one such WDM network, STARNET, which is based on a physical passive star topology and is intended for backbone applications in Campus Networks. A two-node experimental STARNET is being implemented at the Optical Communications Research Laboratory at Stanford University. The interface prototype was completed in September 1993; the printed circuit board version of the interface has been operational without modification since January 1994. We have since developed software from the driver level to the applications layer.