High-dimensionality shared-medium photonic switch

A space-division photonic switch which has the potential to achieve high dimensionality is presented. The proposed switch, which resembles a collapsed network, does not use optical crosspoints; rather a dedicated path is provided for all input/output port connections on a common high-bandwidth transmission medium. This eliminates the restrictions imposed by 2*2 switching elements in classical space-division switching fabrics. The demonstration of a fully connected 120*120 space-division time-multiplexed photonic switch is reported. The dimensionality and blocking performance of a shared-medium photonic switch that uses time-multiplexing is analyzed.<
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