<title>Optical WAN architecture proposed for information superhighway: topology and routing scheme</title>

Abstract

In the present world, the demand to support different types of nationwide traffic (data. voice, video, etc.) requires a high bandwidth and a suitable network topology. Optical fiber offers the potential to supply a pool of capacity to be shared among users and can meet the demands. In this paper, we propose a network topology which serves the above purpose and a routing algorithm which fully deploys the advantages of the topology. The proposed Multi-Dual Ring Connected Shuffle Network Topology, which can be easily implemented with Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) and a multi-hop approach, can eliminate the traffic bottleneck of existing optical communication networks. The proposed adaptive self-routing algorithm can disperse packets away from 'trouble' portions of the network should a congestion or a link failure occur, thus makes the traffic distributed as evenly as possible among all the communication channels available and makes the network survivable. The routing scheme, which does not require a priori knowledge of the traffic pattern, can exploit the full potential communication bandwidth of the proposed network topology. It has the benefits of adaptive routing schemes but adds virtually no extra costs. Since the routing scheme is veiy simple and the switching can be done "on the fly", the proposed network architecture can be a good candidate for the backbone of Information SuperHighway.