DMACS: A Media Access Protocol for Single-Hop WDM Lightwave Networks

This paper proposes a new media access protocol for single-hop local area and metropolitan area all-optical networks employing wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). Through WDM, multiple channels are created on a single ber, and an aggregate network bandwidth far greater than the peak electronic processing speed can be realized. The new protocol, Dynamic Media Access Control Scheme (DMACS), is based on the Dynamic Interleaved Slotted Aloha (DISA) protocol. It improves on DISA by adding a common control channel that provides reservations for constant bit-rate traac, acknowledgments, and global ow control. DMACS supports connection setup and tear down, diierent traac classes, ow control, and packet resequencing in an attempt to integrate features of the transport layer directly into the media access control layer. The performance of the DMACS protocol is evaluated through analytical methods and simulation. It is found to have low collision probability, high maximum throughput, and low excess delay for virtual circuit and datagram traac requiring reliable service. Through simulation, it was found to be superior to the DISA protocol and to provide good performance with a realistic workload.