A photonic integrated circuit based optical mesh node for avionic WDM optical networks

Modern aircraft utilize electrical connections and signals for transport of all flight-critical information. Traditionally, all avionic subsystems were connected using point-to-point duplex links, which increase the weight and complexity of the aircraft wiring, as well as complicate upgrades with new systems and services. More recently, networking technologies like Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (ADFX) have been developed and deployed on the latest commercial platforms offering the advantages of a networked environment while providing deterministic quality of service needed for safety-critical applications. At the same time, for bandwidth hungry sensing applications on board of avionic platforms, fiber optic point-to-point connections have been introduced, mainly using multimode optical signals and fibers. It is envisioned that with future needs for additional bandwidth on board aircraft, electrical networks and multimode optical links will be replaced with a unified single mode optical network, which will provide a future proof communication infrastructure for the life of the aircraft. This ultimate solution in terms of available bandwidth and flexibility will reduce the aircraft weight while reducing the operating costs and out-of-service time. Addition of new sensors or other equipment will be simplified through standard optical interfaces connected to the optical backbone network.