3-STAGE HIGH-PERFORMANCE OPTOELECTRONIC ASYNCHRONOUS TRANSFER MODE SWITCH - DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE

We explore the possibility of enhancing very large scale integration ( VLSI) electronic switch structures using reconfigurable free-space opt ical chip-to-chip interconnects. We present: a novel technological app roach to the realization of an output queued asynchronous transfer mod e (ATM) switching fabric within a low-blocking, three-stage network co nfiguration by employing both electronic and optical switching stages with reduced cross-office transfer rates. The first and third stages a re implemented by the selective reading/writing from/to a sectorized o ptically accessible random access memory (known as opto-RAM) currently under development in our laboratory. The second (central) stage uses holographic fan-out/selective fan-in optics to implement a free-space photonic crossbar switch. We assess the performance of the ATM switch fabric using computer simulation as well as analytic techniques. (C) 1 996 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.