MEMS-based photonic switching in communications networks

All optical or photonic switching is key to the next-generation intelligent optical networks. It enables rapid dynamic provisioning, protection and restoration of network connections cost-effectively, which support revenue-generating services including bandwidth on demand and DWDM over IP. In the past 12 months, MEMS-based photonic cross connect switches have gone from the lab to commercial availability and are now in carrier field trials. Photonic switching is inherently capable of transparently. switching any bit rate and data format. Optical MEMS enables switching any transmission wavelength, or wavelength band in a scalable, reliable, low power, compact size providing flexible solutions to the bandwidth demands of long haul, metro, and access networks. This paper will discuss MEMS based photonic switching subsystems and their commercial deployment.