ABSTRACT
One of the most essential parts in wavelength division multiplexing network is the hardware part of the node having a workstation interconnected to optical fibers and transceivers potentially accessing any of the available wavelength channels in each fiber. A wavelength router transmits the signals from different input to different output port fibers on the basis of the destination address of the signals. An on-reconfigurable wavelength router comprises a first stage having demultiplexers which separate each of the wavelengths on an incoming fiber and a second stage having multiplexers which recombine wavelengths channels to a single output. Two rings interconnect at either one or multiple points. Nationwide optical network does not follow a regular topology but is based on mesh topology. Resource budgeting in the network has a direct impact on the cost of setting up the network. Two categories of optical packet-switched networks are slotted (synchronous) and unslotted (asynchronous) networks.
