Dynamic reconfiguration of an optical interconnect

The advent of optical technology that can feasibly support extremely high bandwidth chip-to-chip communication raises a host of architectural questions in the design of digital systems. Terabit per second (and higher) bandwidths have not previously been available at the chip level. In this paper we examine the use of this optical technology in the design of a network router, a system for which previous designs have been I/O-limited at the chip level. Specifically, we examine the benefits of bandwidth reconfigurability, a capability of the proposed switch fabric, and illustrate the performance impact associated with different reconfiguration rates.