Fiber-optic bus-oriented single-hop interconnections among multi-transceiver stations

The merits of the single-path selective-broadcast interconnection (SBI) implemented in fiber-optic technology are explored. This is a static, passive, fiber-optic interconnection among a set of stations, each equipped with multiple transmitters, and receivers. It uses c/sup 2/ buses, each interconnecting a subset of the stations, and provides a single optical path between any two stations. Thus, it succeeds in decoupling transmission rate from aggregate network throughput. It offers substantial advantages in power budget and the maximum number of stations that can be connected without repeaters and amplifiers. When compared with c buses, each interconnecting all stations, this SBI is attractive in terms of the required passive fiber-optic components such as fiber segments and star couplers. For a fixed power budget, the capacity of this SBI is optimal among bus-oriented single-hop interconnections for both a uniform traffic pattern and worst-case unknown skew.<
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