Scalability of wavelength division multiplexed optical passive star networks with range limited tunable transceivers

The size of an optical passive star and the wavelength range of tunable optical transceivers is limited by current technology. Scalability of passive star networks built with these two limitations is thus an important issue for building large networks. Previously, Cao, Du and Pavan (see Technical Report, Department of Computer Science, University of Minnesota, 1996) explored the design issues for single star networks employing transceivers with limited tuning range. Here we extend that study by considering the problem of connecting several optical passive stars, each embedded with a given virtual topology, to create larger aggregate networks. The design issues are analyzed and a number of design rules are proposed for building such aggregate networks. We consider the most commonly employed virtual topologies-complete graph, mesh and hypercube.