A multi-star optical backbone network suitable for distributed microcellular wireless systems

An optical network architecture suitable for interconnecting base stations in a distributed microcellular wireless communications system is proposed. Base stations are grouped into one-hop subnets of size m each and connected by m×m star couplers. Each base station is affiliated with several subnets and has a tunable optical transceiver(s) over m distinct wavelength channels. The network can support N=m^D base stations, where D is the network diameter (typically 2,3). The multicast nature of the architecture lends itself to fast routing and mobility control schemes supporting point to multipoint connections. The network architecture composed of wired and wireless segments, and corresponding addressing and routing schemes are described. The network is highly fault-tolerant, has a self-routing method and a near balanced load which results in high throughput and low delay. These features are discussed together with examples