ON THE DESIGN OF LARGE ATM SWITCH USING STAR COUPLERS AND TUNABLE DEVICES WITH RESTRAINED TUNING RANGE

Abstract

We propose a large capacity broadband packet switch architecture using multiple optical star couplers and tunable devices whose tuning range is restricted. The proposed switch has the conventional three-stage switch structure. With the use of the generalized knockout principle and tunable lasers arranged in an appropriate manner, the switch becomes an output queueing system that yields the best possible delay/throughput performance. This switch requires minimal hardware at the cost of the increased number of wavelengths.