Optical switch

About: Optical switch is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 28538 publications have been published within this topic receiving 351176 citations.

Space division switches based on semiconductor optical amplifiers

Abstract: Multiple space-division switches based on semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) can be cascaded to obtain larger switching fabrics. The authors present a general analysis of optical switching fabrics using SOAs, considering noise and saturation effects associated with amplified spontaneous emission. They find that the SOA saturation output power limits the number of switches which can be cascaded. For example, a saturation output power of 100 mW limits the size of switching fabrics to 100 64*64 switches or 200 8*8 switches if distributed gain matrix-vector multiplier (MVM) switches or Benes switches are employed. The corresponding limit for lumped gain MVM fabrics is 10 64*64 or 100 8*8. The Benes switch may be more suitable for large switch size (N>16) because it requires fewer SOAs. >

A scalable silicon photonic chip-scale optical switch for high performance computing systems

Abstract: This paper discusses the architecture and provides performance studies of a silicon photonic chip-scale optical switch for scalable interconnect network in high performance computing systems. The proposed switch exploits optical wavelength parallelism and wavelength routing characteristics of an Arrayed Waveguide Grating Router (AWGR) to allow contention resolution in the wavelength domain. Simulation results from a cycle-accurate network simulator indicate that, even with only two transmitter/receiver pairs per node, the switch exhibits lower end-to-end latency and higher throughput at high (>90%) input loads compared with electronic switches. On the device integration level, we propose to integrate all the components (ring modulators, photodetectors and AWGR) on a CMOS-compatible silicon photonic platform to ensure a compact, energy efficient and cost-effective device. We successfully demonstrate proof-of-concept routing functions on an 8 × 8 prototype fabricated using foundry services provided by OpSIS-IME.

Optical scanning system with correction

Abstract: A scanning system device has a predetermined aberration as it scans or switches light along selected optical paths A deformable membrane receives the light and introduces an inverse “aberration” that offsets that of the scanning system In one embodiment the scanning system includes a torsion arm that supports an oscillatory body The torsion arm and/or body can be machined from metal, micromachined in silicon or formed in a variety of other ways Alternatively, the scanning system may include a rotating polygonal scanner or other type of optical scanner In another approach, an optical switch replaces the scanner

Electrical ingress buffering and traffic aggregation for optical packet switching and their effect on TCP-level performance in optical mesh networks

Abstract: The wide deployment of wavelength-division multiplexing technology and new transmission techniques have resulted in significant increases in the transmission capacity in optical fibers, both in the number of wavelengths and the bandwidth of each wavelength channel. Meanwhile, the fast growth of the Internet demands more data switching capacity in the network in order to deliver high bandwidth to end users. Although the capacity of electronic routers has been increasing consistently in the past, optical switching appears to be a more cost-effective way to switch individual wavelengths. As the bit rate per wavelength channel continues to grow, optical subwavelength switching emerges as a new paradigm capable of dynamically delivering the vast bandwidth WDM offers. This article discusses one of such techniques, namely optical packet switching, and its performance perceived by end users in optical mesh networks. Specifically, our investigation reveals the benefit of using electrical ingress buffering and traffic aggregation to reduce packet-loss rate of optical packet-switched networks. Through simulation experiments, we present an evaluation of the network's TCP-level performance based on the proposed architecture.