Feature

Dynamic optical interconnects

L. Hesselink

Dynamic optical interconnects are reconfigurable routing networks that can interconnect high bandwidth optical data paths. The optical crossbar is an example of an attractive architecture that can be implemented using photorefractives. Once the routing network has been established, optical inputs are reflected, refracted, or diffracted passively to their respective outputs. Upon termination of the task, the network can be reconfigured and adapted to new routing requirements. The major advantage of this approach is the high optical transmission bandwidth (GHz), although the reconfiguration time may be slow (on the order of msecs or (μsecs).