In optical networking, a lightpath is a path between two nodes in an optical network between which light passes through unmodified.
Description
When a lightpath can be established between source and destination node endpoints the connection is totally optical and avoids throttling by intermediate electronic conversions and processing.1 Where a lightpath passes through an Optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM) is known as a cut-through lightpath. Where a lightpath is added or dropped at an OADM, it is known as an added/dropped lightpath.2
Semi-lightpath
Where endpoints are connected by a series of lightpaths with the intermediate nodes only changing the light wavelength at the junctions this may be referred to as a semi-lightpath.3
See also
- Wavelength switched optical network
- Multicast lightpaths
- Network Description Language
References
Jue, Jason P. "Lightpath Establishment in Wavelength-Routed WDM Optical Networks" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 August 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2018. http://www.utdallas.edu/~jjue/cs6v81/articles/dle.pdf ↩
"OADM". 7 August 2006. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304033013/http://www.optical-network.com/terminology.php?letter=all&id=8 ↩
Liang, Weifa; Havas, G.; Xiaojun, Shen (2003). "Improved lightpath (wavelength) routing in large WDM networks". Proceedings. 18th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (Cat. No.98CB36183). IEEE. pp. 516–523. doi:10.1109/ICDCS.1998.679797. ISBN 0-8186-8292-2. S2CID 3059776. Abstract. 0-8186-8292-2 ↩