Optical CDMA Networks: Principles, Analysis and Applications

Chapter 9

Optical CDMA Networking

9.1 Introduction

In the past decade we have witnessed significant development in the area of optical networking. Such advanced technologies as dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM), optical amplification, optical path routing, e.g. optical cross connect (OXC), reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) and high-speed switching have found their way into the wide-area networks (WANs), resulting in a substantial increase of the telecommunications backbone capacity and greatly improved reliability.

At the same time, enterprise networks converged on 100 Mbps fast Ethernet architecture [1]. Some LANs even moved to gigabit data rates [2], courtesy of a new gigabit Ethernet (GbE) standard adopted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE 802.3z and 802.3ab).

An increasing number of households have more than one computer. Home networks allow multiple computers to share a single printer or a single Internet connection. Most often, a home network is built using a low-cost switch or a hub that can interconnect 4 to 16 devices. Builders of new houses now offer an option of wiring a new house with a category-5 (CAT-5 or RJ45) cable to facilitate home networks or end-user demarcations [3]. Older houses have an option of using existing phone wiring, in-house power lines, or an ever more popular wireless network, based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. Different flavours of this standard can provide up to 150 Mbps bandwidth up ...