Abstract

The advantages of the wavelength domain in for high capacity optical networking have been well documented Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) offers high capacity yet does not place ever increasing demands on the speed of the electronic interface. It offers evolution either through wavelength re-use, successive refinement of the wavelength multiplex or indeed upgrade of opto-electronic interfaces to higher bit rate. In addition, many have observed that the wavelength domain offers additional functionality ranging from the opportunity to trade capacity for simplicity to allowing completely new approaches to network functionality. Although some might argue that the gigabit and terabit capacities offered by such networks are beyond the requirements of most current systems, it has become clear that a significant number of applications for WDM networks exist in television studio networking, high performance computing, multimedia systems and the public telecommunications transport network.

© 1994 Optical Society of America