Optical packet switching

Abstract

We report here a scalable, multichassis, 6.3 terabit core router, which utilizes our proprietary optical switch. The router is commercially available and deployed in several customer sites. Our solution combines optical switching with electronic routing. An internal optical packet switching network interconnects the router’s electronic line cards, where routing and buffering functions take place electronically. The system architecture and performance will be described. The optical switch is based on Optical Phased Array (OPA) technology. It is a 64 x 64, fully non-blocking, optical crossbar switch, capable of switching in a fraction of a nanosecond. The basic principles of operation will be explained. Loss and crosstalk results will be presented, as well as the results of BER measurements of a 160 Gbps transmission through one channel. Basic principles of operation and measured results will be presented for the burst-mode-receivers, arbitration algorithm and synchronization. Finally, we will present some of our current research work on a next-generation optical switch. The technological issues we have solved in our internal optical packet network can have broad applicability to any global optical packet network.