Towards terabit/s TDM photonic systems

The next generation computer networks will handle the bandwidth requirements from new applications such as supercomputer interconnection, tele-medicine applications, interactive TV and multimedia banks. The increases in the number of end users and per user bandwidth demand clearly indicate the need of developing ultra-fast advanced optical networks that are capable of delivering the throughput ranging from hundreds Gb/sec to several Tb/s. Most research efforts to date on optical networks are focused on wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and time-division multiplexing (TDM). This paper discusses the feasibility of achieving Tb/s throughput in a single wavelength channel using TDM based on the results from a network demonstration operating at 100 Gbit/sec we developed at Princeton University