Photonic frequency routing type time division highway switch

Abstract

A photonic frequency routing type time division highway switch which requires no conflict control at the input side, and incorporates no inherent splitting loss of the optical signal power. The switch is formed by a plurality of tunable frequency convertors for allocating frequency channels to the optical signals on the input highways at each timeslot; a frequency router for connecting the optical signals outputted from the frequency convertors to its outputs according to the frequency channels allocated to the optical signals at each timeslot; and a plurality of frequency multiplexed output buffers for outputting the optical signals outputted from the frequency router to the output highways such that a plurality of optical signals with different frequency channels which are in an identical timeslot are outputted at different timeslots.