Merging Electronics and Photonics towards the Terabit/s ATM Switching

摘要

The paper is focused on the architectural and technological solutions that will allow the transition from small to huge capacity ATM Switching Systems. This path starts from the industrial nodes available today and will arrive at the photonic switching architecture. The progressive introduction of photonics has already started with the use of optical interconnec- tions in ATM nodes of hundreds of Gbit/s. A balanced use of microelectronics and photonics is the correct answer to the Terabit/s switching system challenge.