Availability of all-optical switching fabrics used in optical cross-connects

The application of all-optical switching fabrics will be an important breakthrough in avoiding capacity bottleneck caused by electronic-switching in optical networks. All-optical domain of achieved network is characterised by absence of optical-electrical-optical conversions. In this paper, the-state-of-the-art of optical switching fabrics used in optical cross-connect is reviewed. Moreover, availability analysis of those switching fabrics have been examined. Methods for increasing availability of MEMS switches and entire optical network have been shown.