On the performance of shared-channel multihop lightwave networks

The authors study the effect of channel sharing on the performance of multihop lightwave networks when channel sharing is achieved by using a time-division multiple-access (TDMA) technique. They present a result which gives an upper bound for the throughput that can be achieved with any virtual topology that can be established with N stations assuming that the traffic distribution is uniform and that all virtual links have the same capacity. Using this result they determine the optimal degree of channel sharing that maximizes throughput. They also determine the optimal degree of channel sharing when the criterion is to maximize the network power, which is defined as a ratio of throughput and delay.