Power-efficient layout of a fiber-optic multistar that permits log ₂ N concurrent baseband transmissions among N stations

A passive, single-hop, fiber-optic interconnection among N stations, each with two transmitters and one receiver, and a round-robin transmission schedule for it, which jointly permit log ₂ N concurrent noninterfering transmissions on a single wavelength, has recently been described. This is a substantial improvement over the previously known limit of two concurrent transmissions, but the layout of this interconnection poses a challenge in terms of both wiring complexity and path loss. A power-efficient implementation of this interconnection using several stages of balanced fiber-optic star couplers is presented here. With lossless components, path loss is N, the same as that of a single-star interconnection that permits only a single transmission at a time. Consequently, the high degree of parallelism translates into higher capacity. The required number of (2×2) star couplers is also very similar to that required for implementing a single N×X star