On the All-to-All Broadcast Problem in Optical Networks1

This paper considers the transmission of uniform deterministic traffic in an optical broadcast-star network using Wavelength Division Multiplexing. Lower bounds are established on the minimum time to exchange information between every node pair in such a network with tunable transmitters and fixed-tuned receivers. Three different scheduling algorithms are developed that are strictly optimal in three regimes of system parameters. The results are applicable to arbitrary tuning delays and arbitrary numbers of wavelength channels, and indicate the existence of a well-defined transition regime from tuning-limited operation to bandwidth-limited operation. Finally, the problem of computing the optimal number of wavelengths is addressed to achieve a schedule with minimum schedule length, and exact solutions are given.