Basics

In this chapter, we introduce several components which are used in our architectural comparisons and as building blocks for our proposed network. In Section 1.1, we consider these components in isolation and describe their respective properties. In Chapter 5 we will discuss how the components can be connected in order to form our WDM network. Section 1.2 deals with several transmission impairments encountered in optical networks. Their impact on our proposed network will be investigated when discussing the network feasibility in Chapter 8. For an in-depth discussion and detailed information on the following and other components and transmission impairments the interested reader is referred to [Muk97][RS98][MS00].