Abstract
We propose a hybrid optical–wireless access network that consists of reconfigurable optical backhaul and
wireless mesh networks (WMNs). The complementary characteristics of wireless and optical networks are combined to
provide a broadband and ubiquitous last-mile connection. Wireless mesh routers are deployed to penetrate the
vicinity of end users for a flexible and ubiquitous connection. It eliminates massive and geographically scattered
deployment of physical infrastructure to reach the end users. The broadband optical backhaul consists of optical
ring and multiple tree networks, connecting the central hub and WMNs. The ends of the optical tree networks connect
to the wireless gateway routers of WMNs. A hybrid time-division-multiplexing (TDM)/wavelength-division-multiplexing
(WDM) optical backhaul is realized by wavelength-multiplexing multiple TDM-passive-optical-network streams. This
hybrid architecture provides graceful scalability, cost effectiveness, and bandwidth efficiency. To adapt to a
change of the overall demand in different districts, reconfigurability is implemented in the optical backhaul
utilizing tunable optical transceivers. An experimental test bed is implemented to evaluate the reconfigurable
scheme. Given the synergy of the optical backhaul and WMNs, we propose an integrated-routing algorithm to achieve
load balancing on this hybrid architecture. The simulation using NS2 shows an approximately 25% throughput
improvement with load balancing.
© 2007 IEEE
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