Scalability Issues in Optical Networks

Peter OHLEN  Eilert BERGLIND  Lars THYLEN  

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E82-B   No.2   pp.231-238
Publication Date: 1999/02/25
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: INVITED PAPER (Joint Special Issue on Photonics in Switching: Systems and Devices)
Category: Photonic Networking
Keyword: 
optical communication,  noise,  jitter,  repeaters,  optoelectronic devices,  

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Summary: 
Since the inception of optical networking, a goal has been to create an all-optical network. The rapid breakthrough for WDM in point to point links has brought this prospect considerably closer, however, at the same time, questions regarding the scalability of the all-optical network remain. In this paper, we review our recent research in this area, partly performed within the European Union project METON (METropolitan Optical Network), and discuss the all-optical approach and different optoelectronic alternatives, mainly of the 2R (reamplify and reshape) type.