Performance of a Medium Access Control Protocol for a WDMA/TDMA Photonic Ring Network

We present the results of computer simulation of a new medium access control (MAC) protocol for a photonic ring network based on a combination of wavelengthand time-division multiple access (WDMA/ TDMA). The simulations show that the proposed protocol offers maximum throughput in excess of 90% of total network capacity, although for delay-sensitive traffic it is necessary to limit the offered traffic to around 70% of capacity. Our protocol thus allows at least twice the throughput of the next best existing alternative, slotted ALOHA.