A Wide-Band Local Access System Using Emerging-Technology Components

Abstract
Recent advances in optical transmission technologies hold forth the promise of abundant and low-cost bandwidth. Parallel advances in the fundamental technologies required for the construction of switching equipment result in a plethora of emerging technologies available for use by the systems designers seeking to define a wide-band ( > 100 Mbits/s per channel) communications system. This paper presents a concept for such a system intended for use in the local access segment of a communications network. Both the proposed underlying technologies and the systems concepts used in applying those technologies will be presented.