Scaling photonic packet switches to a large number of ports [invited]

We review our work on optical switching architectures that allow for scaling to a large number (thousands) of ports. We explain that the complexity of the node control critically depends on the node architecture and, hence, critically impacts the end-to-end latency of the system. We introduce node architectures with highly distributed control that allow for systems with very low end-to-end latency. We present integrated devices that support such systems and we present laboratory experiments to illustrate the technical feasibility of such switching systems.