Bell Communications Research, Inc.

Edward Arthurs

Matthew S Goodman

Haim Kobrinski

Tony T Lee

Mario P Vecchi

Chong K Kim

Yu-Ngai J Hui

An optical switch for use in a fiber optic telecommunications network is disclosed. An important feature of the inventive switch is its multicast capability. The inventive switch utilizes two internal networks, an optical network for transmission and an electronic network for control. Illustratively, the transmission network is an optical star network which links the input ports and output ports of the invention switch. The electronic control network is in the form of a track of ring which surrounds the optical star and sequentially connects the input and output ports.

Multicast packet switching method

An optical switch for use in a fiber optic telecommunications network is disclosed. An important feature of the inventive switch is its multicast capability. The inventive switch utilizes two internal networks, an optical network for transmission and an electronic network for control. Illustratively, the transmission network is an optical star network which links the input ports and output ports of the inventive switch. The electronic control network is in the form of a track or ring which surrounds the optical star and sequentially connects the input and output ports.

Broadband optical multicast switch

A switch for receiving packets on optical fiber input trunks and for switching the packets to appropriate optical fiber output trunks is disclosed. The packet switch is a hybrid switch comprising both optical and electronic devices and specifically comprises and electronic input buffer, an optical transport network and an optical control network. The optical transport network prevents internal collisions within the switch and the optical control network prevents external collisions of packets. The packet switch exploits the inherent properties of optical and electronic devices for the specific functions they are best suited for.

Hybrid optical and electronic packet switch

A multiwavelength optical cross-connect network for a parallel processing computer system is disclosed. Illustratively, in a parallel processing computer system with N processors and M memories, two passive star couplers and a total of 2N+2M optical fiber links, produce a fully connected, internally non-blocking, large throughput, cross-connect network. Illustratively, the cross-connect network utilizes tunable optical sources and heterodyne receivers to deliver information requests from particular processors to particular memories and responses from particular memories to particular processors.

Fast optical cross-connect for parallel processing computers

A mechanism is disclosed for resolving conflicts between input ports of a Batcher-Banyan network that wish to transmit data packets to the same output port during a particular packet switching cycle. In the present invention, each Batcher-Banyan packet switch cycle is divided into three phases. The first phase is an arbitration phase in which output port conflicts are resolved. In the second phase, the results of the arbitration are communicated to the winning input ports. The third phase is a data packet transmission phase in which data packets from the winning input ports are actually transmitted through the Batcher-Banyan network.

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Summit, NJ, United States of America

Edward Arthurs