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Commercial Optical Switches

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Optical Switching in Next Generation Data Centers

Abstract

Optical switching technologies have many applications in various areas, such as ICT, biomedicine, sensors, and displays. This chapter reviews several main optical switching technologies that have been extensively researched and commercially developed for deployments in telecommunications and datacenter networks. It covers basic knowledge about the principle, structure, performance, and applications of the most commonly developed optical switches including MEMS-based, beam-steering, liquid crystal-based, electro-optic, SOA-based, and thermo-optic categories. These switching technologies have their own characteristics and usage scenarios. Some of them have large scalability but relatively slow switching speed, while some can achieve fast switching speed but limited scalability. Comparison in terms of characteristics of the discussed switch devices is provided to help reader understand their application areas and prospects.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Temasek Lab, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore, Singapore

    Qirui Huang

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  1. Qirui Huang
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Correspondence to Qirui Huang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ericsson Research, Pisa, Italy

    Francesco Testa

  2. Department of Physics, Nanoscience Lab, University of Trento, Povo, Trento, Italy

    Lorenzo Pavesi

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Huang, Q. (2018). Commercial Optical Switches. In: Testa, F., Pavesi, L. (eds) Optical Switching in Next Generation Data Centers. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61052-8_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61052-8_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61051-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-61052-8

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