MCNC Researchers Develop Just-In-Time Optical Protocol

Researchers at MCNC and North Carolina State University have developed a Just-in-Time (JIT) optical networking protocol for ultra-fast provisioning and management of all-optical network connections.



The JIT protocol provides out-of-band control signal processing to maximize set up time and optical switch bandwidth efficiency. Signal messages travel in advance of the data they are describing and undergo electro-optical conversion at each intermediate node. Switching elements inside the switches are configured for the incoming data (a tell-and-go approach), thus minimizing network latency by eliminating round-trip waiting time. In JIT, data remains transparent to the intermediate network, which means data channels being transmitted on individual wavelengths can convey analog (e.g. radar) and digital traffic in any format, data rate or modulation scheme. Significantly, time synchronization between network nodes is not required.



The developers claim the protocol represents a significant breakthrough in the transmission of high-capacity signals by addressing the frequency, availability and data rate challenges facing current and emerging bandwidth-intensive applications.



"JIT provides a mechanism to establish end-to-end optical connections in microseconds, where data can be as small as packets or as large as long-lived light paths," said Dan Stevenson, vice president of MCNC-RDI's Advanced Network Research Division. "Multi-wavelength, reconfigurable optical networks offer greater capabilities than current transport SONET and IP router technologies when applications need large data units to achieve and maintain sustained data rates as high as 10 gigabits per second."



The protocol was recently demonstrated for the FCC at the Naval Research Laboratory's Center for Computational Science. The demonstration transported uncompressed digital 1.5 Gbps High HDTV signals through an all-optical light path. The HDTV transmission required no conversion processing within the network as it remained in the all-optical data plane from source to destination. http://www.mcnc.org/rdi/index.cfm?fuseaction=news_item&id=305