A media-access protocol for WDM star-coupler networks with non-equidistant stations

Proposes a new media-access protocol for WDM star coupler networks of which the stations have arbitrary distances to the star coupler. The network architecture is called CC-FTFT-FRTR, in which each station sends packets at a unique wavelength using a fixed-tuned transmitter and receives packets using a tunable receiver. The authors propose a novel synchronization scheme which allows stations to have arbitrary (or dynamic) propagation delays to the star coupler. In addition, a new control signalling scheme is also presented to lower the signalling bandwidth demand. A new protocol, called systolic sliding windows (SSW), can yield the same throughput as the protocols in Chen and Yum (1991) and Chipalkatti et al. (1993); compared to the conventional approach that extra delay lines are used to make all stations have the same propagation delay to the star coupler, this protocol is capable of coping with the dynamic change of propagation delays from the stations to the star coupler, incurs less network delay, and requires no accurate measurement of propagation delays from stations to the star coupler. It is the first single-hop protocol based on CC-FTFT-FRTR structure that can achieve higher throughput than DT-WDMA for networks of which the stations can have arbitrary or dynamic propagation delays to the star coupler