Abstract

One architecture for all-optical networks is to construct multiswitch networks by using SOA-based N × N optical crossbars. Figure 1 shows the matrix vector multiplier (MVM) architecture used for these crossbars, which provides full broadcast and nonblocking capabilities. Although the data paths of such all-optical networks can be made to be functionally protocol independent, the performance of the network may be greatly affected by certain aspects of the protocol.

© 1995 Optical Society of America