Recently Internet traffic has almost doubled every year. This continued exponential growth is placing increasing strains on the existing telecommunication infrastructure, which will need to be relieved in order to accommodate future capacity requirements. Today the main bottleneck is at the level of the access network, which resides between the individual subscribers and the central office (CO) operated by the network carrier. The present access services are based on an installed copper-line infrastructure, exhibiting fundamental bandwidth (Mb/s data rate to each subscriber) and distance limitations. To satisfy the insatiable bandwidth demands for emerging digital services, optical access networks are being standardized and deployed, in which each end user can use a much larger bandwidth (hundreds of Mb/s to Gb/s). Recent developments in optical technologies have made the realization of the optical access network feasible and cost-effective for wide deployment.
Once the broadband optical access network prevails, the aggregate demand will overwhelm the bandwidth provisioning of the current network infrastructure based on Internet protocol (IP) routers. Metropolitan area networks (MAN) connect the Internet backbone and local access points, typically spanning tens of miles. Traditionally, SONET has been deployed to provide circuit links for the voice traffic. Due to the exponentially increasing data traffic generated by Internet applications, many research and standardization efforts are aiming to provide alternate high-capacity MAN architecture and technology. (e.g. RPR, Metro Ethernet, etc.)
To facilitate the evolution of the current network toward the next generation optical networks, the principal investigator (PI) will investigate the novel MARIN (Metro and Access Rings Integrated Network) architecture. MARIN is an integrated network that fuses the access networks and the MAN, and makes use of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) ring technology and wavelength conversion for removing the current and anticipated limitations of both access network and MAN. It will have the following important characteristics: (i) WDM ring technology integrating MAN and access network, providing high capacity; (ii) Highly scalable as the number of users grows and the data rate increases; (iii) Suitable for smooth transition from legacy networks to the future optical networks; (iv) High-speed optical routing based on Optical Burst Switching (OBS); and (v) Exploiting wavelength conversion to facilitate routing for high speed and low latency.
The PI will investigate in detail the feasibility of the proposed MARIN architecture. The PI will perform investigations in the areas of access networks, MAN, and OBS with advanced wavelength conversion, which will become more integrated as time progresses.
Broader Impact: This work will have a broader impact beyond the narrow achievement of the technical goals. If some of the goals are reached, the MARIN architecture could influence the way future communication networks are designed. Hence, this work could have a sizeable economic impact. In addition, by improving the performance of communication systems, this work could facilitate the way people communicate via Internet and other means, which is currently revolutionizing the way people interact and work.
