Optical layer multicast: rationale, building blocks, and challenges

Optical layer multicast refers to the support of point-to-multipoint connections directly at the physical layer by employing passive devices capable of splitting the power of an input signal among several outputs. Optical multicast technology enables a broad set of applications and opens new directions to network design. We examine the underlying principles and essential components for a practical optical multicast service. We also present a set of key research challenges along with a survey of the literature.