Performance and applications of a large port-count and low-loss photonic cross-connect system for optical networks

We report a 256×256 photonic cross-connect system including 1:1 protection and under 7dB insertion loss in the O and C bands. Some performance metrics are more or less important depending on the application but high reliability and low insertion loss are common requirements for network deployment. Although a 3D-MEMS based PXC is highly linear and transparent, its impact on the optical reach when several nodes are cascaded without electrical regeneration cannot be neglected. A metric is proposed to measure the performance and transparency of a PXC in an all-optical network: the ratio of the bandwidth × distance products given by B.L(N)/B₀.L₀.