A reservation-based multicasting protocol for WDM local lightwave networks

A wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) based multicasting protocol for a single-hop broadcast-and-select local lightwave network is proposed. The approach employs a control-channel-based media-access protocol that schedules multicast packets while incorporating arbitrary transceiver tuning times and propagation delays. An arbitrary number of data channels (W) supply communication bandwidth to N nodes, where N/spl ges/W. An additional control channel is used for synchronization and scheduling. Each node is equipped with one fixed transmitter and one fixed receiver on the control channel, as well as one tunable (wavelength-agile) transmitter and one or more tunable receivers for data channel access. Results suggest the WDM single-hop multicasting experiences very good performance when multicast size is either small or very large, or when nodes are equipped with multiple receivers.