OPTICAL SWITCHES: 448 X 448 optical switch serves terabit systems at nanosecond speeds

摘要

Optical communication networks currently depend on electronic switching techniques to route traffic; however, next-generation supercomputers and terabit/second communications networks will require high-port-count all-optical crossconnect (OXC) switches with nanosecond switching speeds. Current optical switches can easily achieve such speeds, but port count is often limited. And vice versa, high-port-count switches typically suffer from slower switching speeds. But by expanding on previous research that used a wavelength-assisted routing scheme and a single arrayed-waveguide-grating router (AWGR) to create an OXC, researchers at the Institute for Infocomm Research and Nanyang Technological University, both in Singapore, have developed a 448 X 448 port-count OXC that switches at nanosecond speeds.