A conflict-free protocol for optical WDMA networks

A conflict-free protocol for packet-switched wavelength division multiaccess networks is proposed. With the use of a control channel, each station in the network can obtain packet backlog information of all the other stations, and so packet transmission can be scheduled to avoid destination conflicts. A very fast scheduling algorithm is proposed. Simulation results show that a maximum throughput of 1 can be achieved, as compared to a maximum of 0.63 for protocols without transmission scheduling. This high throughput performance is obtained because the transmission, reception and processing of backlog information and the transmission and reception of data packets are all done simultaneously in a pipeline operation and all destination conflicts are avoided in every slot through scheduling. The packet delay is calculated to be only one slot (due to scheduling) larger than those protocols without transmission scheduling at low traffic conditions.<
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