Contention-based reservation protocols in multiwavelength optical networks with a passive star topology

The authors propose contention-based reservation protocols using a separate control channel for multiwavelength optical networks with a passive star topology, where all stations have tunable lasers and tunable filters. They assume a synchronous system where all channels with wavelengths allocated separately are slotted with the transmission time of a data packet and are synchronized at the beginning of slots. A protocol is presented which can be used in the network where the ratio of the end-to-end signal propagation delay to the transmission time of a data packet is smaller than 1. Also, for a very high speed network where this ratio is greater than 1, three protocols are outlined, which are related to the variability of the packet length and the buffering of the reservation. Numerical results show the mean delay-throughput characteristics of the proposed protocols