Multi-fiber linear lightwave networks

Linear lightwave networks (LLNs) (Stern, 1990) are optical networks in which network nodes perform “linear” operations only on optical signals: power splitting, combining, and possibly nonregenerative amplification. While previous efforts on LLNs assume only one fiber per link, the present authors consider a multi-fiber linear lightwave network (M-LLN) for telecommunication networks, where network exchanges are normally connected by multi-fiber cables. An M-LLN can provide an optically transparent path between network exchanges, hence can avoid congestion bottlenecks at intermediate switches. More importantly, the network capacity is scalable with the number of available wavelengths as technology progresses. To demonstrate the feasibility, they propose a class of linear path allocation schemes (LPAS) for setting up optical paths, and discuss the implementation issues in detail