This paper proposes the Multimedia Pre-allocation WDMA (MP-WDMA) media access control (MAC) protocol to provide an efficient packet transfer service for metro-wavelength division multiple access (WDMA) networks. MP-WDMA considers three traffic types: constant bit rate (CBR), variable bit rate 1 (VBR1), and VBR2 traffic for a multimedia service as categorized in Multimedia WDMA (M-WDMA) MAC protocol. MP-WDMA is based on pre-allocation WDMA (P-WDMA), but the three traffic types are simultaneously allocated at one time slot, and one of them is selected through low bandwidth control signaling. Namely, a station assigns appropriate priority to input traffic, based on proposed traffic priority rules in MP-WDMA in order to determine the type of traffic. Accordingly, MP-WDMA can reduce station complexity as well as the possibility of idle time slot occurrences, compared with M-WDMA. Additionally, we analytically investigate the channel utilization and channel access delay of MP-WDMA and compare them with those of M-WDMA to find a proper MAC protocol for the networks. As a result, MP-WDMA supports maximally 30% higher channel utilization than M-WDMA regardless of channel and traffic conditions. Furthermore, MP-WDMA reduces the channel access delay of the delay-sensitive VBR2 traffic at the cost of increasing the channel access delay of the delay-insensitive VBR1 traffic. In this regard, MP-WDMA is suitable for the networks in terms of station complexity, channel utilization, and the channel access delay for VBR2 traffic.

A new load balanced channel sharing method (CSM), namely Heuristic Traffic Load Balanced (HTLB) CSM, is proposed for metro-wavelength division multiple access (WDMA) networks. In particular, HTLB CSM is designed to be effective for pre-allocation based medium access control (MAC) protocols by balancing traffic loads corresponding to pre-assigned destinations per time slot. As a result, HTLB CSM is shown to provide lower time complexity than the well-known sub-optimal load balanced CSM, MULTIFIT CSM. Furthermore, the Jain Index of the HTLB CSM is shown to be higher and more consistent than the MULTIFIT CSM and other pre-fixed CSMs under diverse traffic conditions.

Multimedia Wavelength Division Multiple Access (M-WDMA) specially designed to accommodate multimedia traffic is a well-known media access control (MAC) protocol. This paper extensively analyzes the throughput of M-WDMA. Specifically, this analysis considers a wide range of network conditions including varying traffic loads, probabilistic occupancy of time segment, various traffic distribution patterns (TDPs) and channel sharing methods (CSMs) under both symmetric and asymmetric traffic load patterns (TLPs). Thus, the analytic behavior of M-WDMA can be investigated for designing a WDMA network managing multimedia traffic under practical environments.

We propose a low-cost, high-uniformity, and low excess loss star coupler. The proposed star coupler comprises a planar lightguide, a diffuser, and polymer optical fibers (POFs). High-uniformity of optical power distribution was enabled by utilizing the diffused light transmission. Input light is diffused by the diffuser that is attached between the input POFs and the planar lightguide and transmitted through the planar lightguide. The optimum width-to-length ratio of the lightguide is clarified through simulations and experiments. We fabricated the star couplers based on the optimum width-to-length ratio for evaluation. The fabricated 1616 star coupler showed the excellent uniformity at the distribution ratio of 0.8 dB and the excess loss of 3.3 dB. The fabricated star coupler also provides a wide tolerance for misalignment. The maximum number of nodes to assure high transmission quality and the bandwidth of the proposed star coupler are discussed. The proposed star coupler is remarkably cost effective since it can be produced by injection-molding technology. The proposed star coupler enables easy multi-channel interconnection.

The design, fabrication, and testing of a highly multimode polymeric 88 star coupler is described. The design process allowed a comparison to be made of ray tracing and beam propagation methods for the design of such highly multimode waveguide devices. The results obtained with either of these two different methods agree well with actual measurements on a fabricated 88 multimode-input star coupler with a refractive index difference of Δn=0.0274 and a device length of L=4.25 cm. The reduction in the rms power fluctuation in the output guides with the choice of a higher refractive index difference is demonstrated.

Theoretical network analysis of a network constructed of "Interconnectable Star Couplers" whose all diagonal elements of transmission matrix are zero is investigated. Under certain connection rules, Interconnectable Star Coupler can be connected each other without oscillation and ghost formation. The rules are: (1) Network should not contain any loop. (2)Only single port pair should be connected between neighbor star couplers. (3)Network shold not contain any usual star coulpler. "Coupled Star Network", which is constructed under the connection rules, is able to form Cascade Star topology, Stratified Star topology and their mixed topology. It is shown that the Coupled Star Network is equivalent to a large Interconnectable Star Coupler so that bidirectional communication, which can add confidentiality to the broadcasting bus and doubles communication capacity, is available. A new configuration of Coupled Star Network using passive Interconnectable Star Couplers and optical amplifiers is proposed. This network has two separated bidirectional communication channel which can be applied for so-called Multimedia LAN. As a result of comparison between Cascade Star topology and Stratifide Star topology, it is shown that the latter topology is superior to former topology, from the view point of signal degeneration and maximum round trip delay time. Cascade Star topology, however, is superior to Stratified Star topology from the angle of total fiber length. Accordingly, optimized network topology is thought to be mixed topology of these.