HORNET-A packet-switched WDM network: optical packet transmission and recovery

The hybrid optoelectronic ring network (HORNET) is a novel packet-switched wavelength-division-multiplexed metropolitan area network (MAN). HORNET uses a combination of optical and electronic packet-switching and an optical carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) media access scheme to efficiently provide large bandwidth to many users. The HORNET optical packets consist of 2.5-Gb/s payload data, an embedded 2.5-GHz clock tone, and a subcarrier-multiplexed (SCM) header for CSMA/CA. We are constructing an experimental testbed to demonstrate the ability of HORNET nodes to transmit and receive packets, to recover the destination node address carried by the SCM header, and to perform fast clock and data recovery with minimal overhead within the HORNET packet receiver.