All-optical crossbar switch using wavelength division multiplexing and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

A design for an all-optical crossbar network utilizing wavelength-tunable v ertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) technology and a combination of free-space optics and compact optical waveguides is presented. Polymer w aveguides route the optical signals from a spatially distributed array of p rocessors to a central free-space optical crossbar, producing a passive, al l-optical, fully connected crossbar network directly from processor to proc essor. The analyzed network could, relatively inexpensively, connect local clusters of tightly integrated processors. In addition, it is also believed that such a network could be extended, with wavelength reuse, to connect m uch larger numbers of processors in a multicluster network. (C) 1999 Optica l Society of America.