OPTIMA: Tb/s ATM switching system architecture

A Tb/s throughput ATM switching architecture, OPTIMA, is proposed for a quasi-non-blocking large switch. The switch uses hardware self-rearrangement with a three stage network, that is traffic control is automatically performed by hardware. The switch thus acts as a non-blocking switch. In addition, optical wavelength routing is used to avoid interconnection limitations. An 8/spl times/8 interconnection is realized that uses 8 wavelengths to transfer 10 Gb/s signals. A 640 Gb/s OPTIMA prototype is described. The proposed OPTIMA architecture and 640 Gb/s system can be applied to realize future broadband ATM networks.