An all-optical wavelength-division meshed-ring packet-switching network

Introduces an all-optical wavelength-division packet-switching meshed-ring local/metropolitan area communication network. This architecture, known as SMARTNet (scalable multi-channel adaptable ring terabit network), allows the proposed network to offer a significant increase in the throughput capacity realized by any local/metropolitan area shared-medium network. The SMARTNet architecture is ATM capable and fits naturally with, and takes best advantage of, the kinds of high speed optoelectronic and optical components that can actually be constructed. For certain meshed-ring regular physical topologies, an upper bound on the network´s throughput efficiency is derived. Specific network configurations are demonstrated which achieve a throughput efficiency level which is close to 90% of this bound. Such network structures exhibit a throughput capacity level which is 80% higher than that realized by traditional (non-meshed) ring networks