Modular EGS architectures for optical interconnections

Interconnection systems inside switching equipment, high-performance computers and data-centers are nowadays facing more and more demanding requirements. Optical interconnections based on multistage switching networks provide more bandwidth and less energy consumption compared to electronic counterparts. In this work a procedure to design the architecture of optical multistage switching networks is proposed which exploits the properties of multistage networks, on one side, and of optical switching systems on the other side. Thanks to the modularity of the architecture, a generic-size fabric can be implemented by simply cascading multiple stage-modules. In this paper we show in details the application of the approach to the Extended Generalized Shuffle (EGS) networks, though the method can be extended to other types of networks. The proposed procedure supports various implementation technologies, as, for example, integrated optics with micro-ring resonators, free- space optics with 2-D MEMS, networks on chip. © 2013 IEEE.