Comparison of optical network topologies for wavelength division multiplexed transport networks

In this paper, the various network topologies comprising of various nodes have been investigated and compared. The signal is analyzed as it passes through each node in each of the network topology. For the ring topology, it is shown that there is no appreciable signal degradation in the ring network. It is seen that there is increase in Quality factor i.e. signal keeps on improving as it passes through the successive nodes. For the bus topology, the quality of signal goes on decreasing with increase in the number of nodes and the power penalty goes on increasing. For the star topology, it is observed that received power values of each node at a same distance from the hub are same and the performance is same. For the tree topology, it is observed that the performance of the optical tree is almost identical to the performance of ring topology, as signal quality is improved as it passes through the successive nodes of the hierarchy but the overall length of each segment is limited by the type of cabling used and if the backbone line breaks, the entire segment goes down.