Abstract

We describe an optoelectronic switching system demonstration that implements part of the distribution fabric for a large ATM switch. The system uses a single optoelectronic VLSI modulator-based switching chip with more than 4000 optical I/O. The optical system images the input fibers from a two dimensional fiber bundle onto this chip. The optomechanical design allows the system to be mounted in a standard electronic equipment frame. A large section of the switch was operated as a 208 Mb/s time multiplexed space switch, which can serve as part of an ATM switch using the appropriate out-of-band controller. A larger section with 896 input light beams and 256 output beams was operated at 160 Mb/s as a slowly reconfigurable space switch. In this presentation, we will give an overview of the demonstration system, including the motivation, architecture, switching chip, optical system, input lasers, fiber bundle array, opto-mechanics, control software, and experimental results.

© 1997 Optical Society of America