A ${N} \times {N}$ Architecture for 2-D Mirror-Type Optical Switches

This paper presents a switching architecture for any large port number optical cross connecting switch. We show the switching arrangement and the construction process to realize mirror-type optical switches. The proposed architecture refers to the Waksman network. Compared to other switching architectures, this architecture uses a minimum number of mirrors. Four guiding rules of the mirror arrangement method are proposed to assist building up a large port number mirror-type optical switch in an efficient way. By the analysis of all loss sources, the design parameters of the mirror are identified. The expandability and feasibility are verified. Furthermore, by an expert system, we can build up a lookup table to reduce the control complexity. The generalized simulation results show that the optical switch architecture of this paper is capable to archive the Bell Communications Research (BELLCORE) specification requirements for low and high port numbers.