High-dimensionality shared-medium photonic switch

Are crossbars really dead?

“…The power budget analysis indicates systems with 1000 nodes or more are feasible with current technology [6]. The fiber dispersion will limit the physical distance between the central star-coupler and the attached nodes to about 100m, which is more than sufficient for multiprocessor interconnect systems and ultra-fast local area networks that could support networks of workstations [ 10] with supercomputer class communication bandwidth.…”

“…Practical lasers suitable for OWDM currently support only a small number of channels (<.50) and tunable filters that are capable of selecting the data from a particular OWDM channel are slow to change wavelengths because they typically involve mechanical components (piezo-tuned etalons or surface acoustic wave gratings). Figure 1 outlines the basic structure of the optical hardware that is the basis for this paper [6]. At the center of the switch is a mode-locked, pulse compressed laser that emits a continuous steam of very short light pulses.…”

“…Lacking a fast and practical and-gate prevented previous OTDM switch propc}sals [6] from achieving compelling performance levels. The recent invention of the TOAD device (described below) changes this situation [3].…”