Open AccessHigh-speed optical switch fabrics with large port count
Author(s) -
YongKee Yeo,
Zhaowen Xu,
Dawei Wang,
Jianguo Liu,
Yixin Wang,
Tee-Hiang Cheng
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.17.010990
Subject(s) - optical switch , arrayed waveguide grating , crossover switch , port (circuit theory) , crossbar switch , optics , router , wavelength division multiplexing , optical cross connect , waveguide , optical add drop multiplexer , wavelength , optical performance monitoring , computer science , crosstalk , electronic engineering , telecommunications , optical fiber , physics , engineering , computer network
We report a novel architecture that can be used to construct optical switch fabrics with very high port count and nanoseconds switching speed. It is well known that optical switch fabrics with very fast switching time and high port count are challenging to realize. Currently, one of the most promising solutions is based on a combination of wavelength-tunable lasers and the arrayed waveguide grating router (AWGR). To scale up the number of ports in such switches, a direct method is to use AWGRs with a high channel count. However, such AWGRs introduce very large crosstalk noise due to the close wavelength channel spacing. In this paper, we propose an architecture for realizing a high-port count optical switch fabric using a combination of low-port count AWGRs, optical ON-OFF gates and WDM couplers. Using this new methodology, we constructed a proof-of concept experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of a 256 x 256 optical switch fabric. To our knowledge, this port count is the highest ever reported for switch fabrics of this type.