Photonic multihop bus networks

The photonic bus network (PBNet) approach to the design of small backbone networks is considered. The basic building block of PBNets consist of a linear multihop network interconnected in a bidirectional bus virtual topology using point-to-point optical channels. The system is designed to exploit transmissive optical star technology employing multichannel coherent lightwave modulation, but a wavelength-division implementation is also possible. The NCounter Protocol is introduced as a way of achieving fair bandwidth allocation in the presence of network overload conditions. Due to the optical implementation, there is considerable flexibility in PBNet topological design and bandwidth deployment. New design algorithms are introduced for this purpose. Performance results show that substantial improvements in system operation are possible using the proposed design techniques. In addition, the concept of receiver allocation is introduced which permits simple performance evolution of fixed-channel PBNets