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Development of optical switching

Development of optical switching
In fact, it can be expressed as communication + exchange.
Optical fiber only solves the transmission problem and needs to solve the problem of optical exchange. In the past, communication networks were made up of metal cables,
which transmitted electronic signals, and exchanges were made using electronic switches. In addition to a short segment of the user’s end, the communication network is an
optical fiber that transmits optical signals. A reasonable approach should be to use optical switching. However, since the optical switching device is not mature, only the
“optical-electric-optical” method can be used to solve the exchange of the optical network, that is, the optical signal is converted into an electrical signal, and after being
exchanged by the electronic, the optical signal is returned. Obviously, it is an unreasonable way, and the effect is not high and uneconomical. Large-capacity optical switches
are being developed to implement optical switching networks, especially the so-called ASON-auto-switched optical networks.

Usually, the information transmitted in the optical network is generally Gbps, and the electronic switch is not competent. It is generally necessary to implement an electronic

exchange in a low-order group. Optical switching enables high-speed XGbDs to be exchanged. Of course, it is not to say that everything must be exchanged by light, especially

the exchange of low-speed, small-particle signals. The mature electronic exchange should be used. It is not necessary to adopt immaturely

Large-capacity optical switching. Currently, in data networks, signals appear in the form of “packets”, using so-called “packet switching.” The particles of the bag are relatively
small and can be exchanged by electrons. However, after a large number of packets in the same direction are aggregated, when the number is large, a large-capacity optical
the switch should be used.
Less channel and large capacity optical switching have been practical. Such as for protection, downlink, and small-scale path scheduling. It is generally realized by the
mechanical optical switch and thermo-optical switch. Due to the limitations of the size, power consumption, and integration of these optical switches, the number of channels
is generally 8-16.
Electronic exchange generally has “space division” and “time division” methods. There are “space division”, “time division” and ” wavelength exchange ” in optical
switching. Optical fiber communication rarely uses optical time division switching.
Optical space switching: Generally, an optical switch can be used to transfer an optical signal from one optical fiber to another optical fiber. The optical switches of air
separation has mechanical, semiconductor and thermo-optic switches. Using integrated technology, the MEM micromotor optical switch was developed with a volume as
small as me. The 1296×1296 MEM optical switch (Lucent) has been developed and is experimental in nature.
Optical wavelength switching: assigns a specific wavelength to each switching object. Thus, a certain specific wavelength can be transmitted to communicate with a specific
object. The key to achieving optical wavelength switching is the development of practical variable wavelength light sources, optical filters, and integrated low power, reliable
optical switch arrays. A cross-connection test system (Corning) combining the space and wavelength of a 640×640 semiconductor optical switch + AWG has been
developed. The use of optical space division and optical wavelength division can constitute a very flexible optical switching network. Japan’s NTT conducted field trials using
wavelength routing exchange in Chitose City, with a radius of 5 kilometers and a total of 43 terminal sections (using 5 nodes) at a rate of 2.5 Gbps.
The automatically switched optical network, called ASON, is the direction of further development.
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