FOLANs—An Overview and the Design of Two Optical Ethernets

Abstract

An overview of the recent trends in research and development activities on fibre-optic local area computer networks is presented. Progress in the areas of devices and components, compatible network topologies, media access techniques, multiplexing and detection techniques for FOLAN applications has been outlined. The paper also describes the design and development of two Ethernet compatible optical fibre local area networks based on active and and passive star topologies.

Indexing terms:

• Fibre optic local area network
• Topology
• Star topology
• Media access technique optical amplifier
• Photonic switching