Abstract

We present the particulars of the first commercially successful application of dense wavelength-division networking in the form of a 20-wavelength WDM link system called MuxMaster, shown in block-diagram form in Fig. 1. The link consists of two MuxMaster units attached to opposite ends of a single SMF strand, which then suffices to provide 10 full-duplex connections by the use of 20 WDM channels 1 nm apart, the odd-numbered channels going in one direction and the even-numbered ones in the other. MuxMaster is now installed between main and backup computer centers of one of IBM’s large customers and is in limited production to serve the computer, workstation, and DASD interconnection needs of this and other customers. Such users have a need for many tens, and even hundreds, of parallel duplex connections between site pairs, and they are unwilling to pay for a pure space-division solution. A TDM multiplex solution is even more unattractive to them because, for one thing, it does not allow the protocol independence that WDM provides.

© 1995 Optical Society of America