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Silicon Photonics Switch Matrices: Technologies and Architectures

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Optical Switching in Next Generation Data Centers

Abstract

The successful introduction of optical switching in intra-data center communication will be enabled by high-radix, scalable, low-cost, low-footprint optical switching matrices. Silicon photonics, for the recent advancements achieved in the large-scale integration of optical functions in a single chip, thanks to the use of the same well-developed manufacturing infrastructures used for electronic integrated circuits (CMOS, MEMS, etc.), is considered the most promising technology for the implementation of this type of devices.

In the first part of this chapter, the physical phenomena exploited for optical switching in integrated matrices and the different types of switching cells used as elementary building blocks in scalable optical matrices are presented and discussed.

The second part of the chapter deals with the architectures of optical switching matrices. Three types of matrices are presented and discussed: those with response time in the microsecond range which are suitable for use in fast optical circuit switching, those with response time in the nanosecond range which are suitable for use in optical packet switching, and wavelength selective switch matrices.

Finally, the conclusions are drawn, briefly discussing the perspectives and future research directions.

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Change history

  • 24 June 2019

    The chapter was inadvertently published with an error. In page 246, line 33, the formula O[log2N] is incorrect. It should be O[N log2N]. The same has been updated.

Notes

  1. 1.

    The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement n° 619194.

  2. 2.

    After the preparation of the manuscript an interesting paper has been published presenting a work on a polarization insensitive silicon photonics 50 × 50 switch matrix [53].

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the partners of FP7-IRIS project and they wish to thank Philippe Babin and Francois Menard from Aeponyx Inc. for sharing the information on the MOEMS switch matrix.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ericsson Research, Via G. Moruzzi, 1, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Francesco Testa & Alberto Bianchi

  2. Consorzio Nazionale Inter-Universitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT), Via G. Moruzzi, 1, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Marco Romagnoli

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  1. Francesco Testa
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Correspondence to Francesco Testa .

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  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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Testa, F., Bianchi, A., Romagnoli, M. (2018). Silicon Photonics Switch Matrices: Technologies and Architectures. 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_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61052-8_12

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