PLZT Ultra-high Speed Optical Switch System with GMPLS Controller

A PLZT Ultra-high Speed Optical Switch System with GMPLS Controller has been newly developed. The control unit is a Linux-based PC equipped with GMPLS, RSVP-TE protocol engine, and it can activate the optical switch without any additional device such as a pulse generator. The switching pattern can be stored in 2 memory banks and each can store 4000 switch control signals.The board can switch each bank within 1 clock. Note that the device can control high-performance optical switches, operation speeds less than 10ns, without high speed pulse generators because the controller drives the switch by serial communication. Therefore, the system can control the PLZT ultra-high speed optical switch easily and quickly.
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Architecture
This system consists of a control unit and an optical switch unit. The control unit(Controller) is a Linux-based PC equiped with advanced RSVP-TE(GMPLS) protocol, and is connected to the optical switch unit via a serial link. The optical switch unit consists of an ultra-high-speed controller board, ultra-high-speed driver, and an optical switch. The controller board includes an FPGA that has a pair of 4000 pattern memory banks. It reads and writes the banks based on signals from the controller and sends the appropriate switching pattern signals to the optical switch. The optical switch consists of a fast driver and an optical switch body. The fast driver sends switch signals to the switch body upon receiveing signals from the controller board. This is the device architecture. The PLZT optical switch can be replaced if needed. In addition, various switch arrangements, 1×4, 1×8, 2×2, … can be supported.
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Feature

  • GMPLS, RSVP-TE protocol is equipped.
  • Connect the control unit to the optical switch unit with serial communication: No pulse generator
  • Control the optical switch from PC command line: Easy to control
  • Controller Board in the optical switch unit; Read and write memory banks at the same time since a pair of memory banks is used. Support high speed switching. Switch each bank in 1 clock.
  • Maintenance Input: Control the optical switch direct from the controller without writing the memory banks(Direct Input)
  • Automatic synchronization among several switching systems

Remarks