Optical grooming switch with regenerative functionality for transparent interconnection of networks

Area of Science:

• Optical networking
• Telecommunications engineering
• Switching systems

Background:

• Metro/access and metro/core ring networks require efficient interconnection solutions.
• Buffer-less switching is crucial for high-speed optical networks.
• Existing solutions may lack integrated functionalities for traffic aggregation and signal regeneration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a novel regenerative optical grooming switch.
• To enable buffer-less interconnection of ring networks.
• To integrate time, space, and wavelength domain switching with traffic grooming and signal regeneration.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a regenerative optical grooming switch.
• Utilizing time-slot interchanging (TSI) for traffic aggregation.
• Employing Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)-to-Optical Time Division Multiplexing (OTDM) and OTDM-to-WDM conversion.
• Performing all-optical 2R regeneration for high-speed signals.

Main Results:

• The switch provides buffer-less interconnection for ring networks.
• Integrated functionalities include traffic aggregation, TSI, WDM/OTDM multiplexing/demultiplexing, and all-optical 2R regeneration.
• Bit Error Rate (BER) and Q-factor measurements demonstrated excellent performance, with Q-factors exceeding 21 dB and no error floor.

Conclusions:

• The demonstrated regenerative optical grooming switch is highly effective for buffer-less network interconnection.
• The switch's integrated functionalities significantly enhance optical network performance and efficiency.
• The system shows robust performance suitable for demanding metro and core network applications.