Scalable pseudo-optical switching system for multi-protocol environment

A low cost scalable pseudo-optical switching system has been designed for multi-protocol environment in a local-area (LAN) application. This paper presents a new approach to the design of the switching system transmitting both mixed protocol electrical signals and optical signals over optical fiber, transparent to the user, and protocol independent; this system aims to replace existing electrical interconnects and switching facilities. Due to its scalability and insensitivity to the end user environment it will preserve an initial investment for the whole switching system, including fibers, regardless of future upgrades. For this system we designed: (a) a 8×8 GaAs MESFET analog switch matrix offering a small insertion loss, high channel isolation and over 1 GHz bandwidth and (b) optical input and output ports for the pseudo-optical switch matrix. The 64×64 prototype of this pseudo-optical switching system exhibits over 350 MHz bandwidth