Abstract

Within recent years, there has been a significant amount of interest in applying the new and developing photonics technology for telecommunications switching. Since the transmission plant has converted its facilities to fiber, there is an economic interest in completing the optical path through the switching system to the terminal facilities without requiring optical-to-electrical (o/e) conversions. Several devices have emerged within the past few years that have the capability of meeting this goal. These devices can be categorized, according to the function they perform, into two major classes. The first, called relational devices, performs the function of establishing a relation or mapping between the inputs and outputs. This relation is a function of the control signals to the device and is independent of any signal or data inputs. The second are called logic devices. In these devices, the data or information carrying signal that enters the device controls the state of the device so that a Boolean function or combination of Boolean functions is performed on the inputs.

© 1988 Optical Society of America