Photonic MEMS based reconfigurable switch for multicast communication systems

Fiber-optic communication has provided the information technology revolution with the high data rate networks it needed. A severe limitation of current fiber networks is caused by the use of electronics in switching and routing. An all-optical fiber network, where there is no need for signal conversion between optics and electronic, is the answer to such a demand. We introduce a new approach to implement a transparent all-optical, non-blocking cross connect switch for routing optical network traffic. This approach is based on the combination of MEMS, diffractive optical elements, and optical fibers. The proposed cross-connect is programmable to configure the network as needed. We develop MINs (multistage interconnection networks), using MEMS based switches as the backbone, to support multicast while reducing crosstalk and control complexity. We develop reordering algorithms and design a slot permuter to adapt to all changes for multicast support. The slot permuter permutes the slots in a frame over time. Finally, we verify the performance and effectiveness of our algorithms and the slot permuter through theoretical analysis and extensive simulation.