Author_Institution :
AT&T Bell Lab., Murray Hill, NJ, USA
Abstract :
The strengths and limitations of the photonic technology are reviewed, beginning with the temporal bandwidth limitations of photonic devices and then focusing on spatial bandwidth, commonly referred to as the parallelism of optics, and how it can be used in photonic fabrics. Some of the proposed photonic switching fabrics that are based on guided-wave devices are discussed, comprising switching fabrics based on space channels, using directional couplers and optical amplifiers, and those based on time channels. The latter include active reconfigurable fabrics based on TDM, time-slot interchangers, and universal time slots, in addition to passive shared media fabrics. Some of the switching fabrics that have been proposed using wavelength channels are outlined, and multidimensional fabrics are briefly reviewed. Photonic switching fabrics based on free-space devices are described, covering free-space relational switching fabrics, the basic hardware required for digital free-space optical fabrics, and digital free-space switching fabrics.<>
Keywords :
multi-access systems; optical communication equipment; optical couplers; optical interconnections; optical logic; optical switches; switching systems; TDM; active reconfigurable fabrics; digital free-space optical fabrics; digital free-space switching fabrics; directional couplers; free-space devices; free-space relational switching fabrics; guided-wave devices; multidimensional fabrics; optical amplifiers; passive shared media fabrics; photonic switching fabrics; space channels; spatial bandwidth; temporal bandwidth; time channels; time-slot interchangers; universal time slots; wavelength channels; Bandwidth; Directional couplers; Fabrics; Multidimensional systems; Optical amplifiers; Optical devices; Photonics; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Stimulated emission; Time division multiplexing;
