Design Issues on a Metropolitan WDM Ring Network

A metro ring network using WDM technology requires many issues to be considered even though its transmission distance is shorter and its transmission capacity is lower than a long-haul WDM system. Unlike a long-haul WDM system, which is basically point-to-point configuration, a metro ring network usually equips with capabilty of wavelength reconfiguration. Therefore network performance considering crosstalk within OADM and the network behavior when the ring network is closed should be analyzed before implemented. We discussed some of results analyzed for the issues. Furthermore we proposed a novel method to design a dispersion map for a ring network, and demonstrated the methodology with an exemplary 8-node ring network of 399km circumference.