Abstract

Optical technology has become a significant part of communication networks. We propose an optical interface message processor (OPTIMP) that exploits high bandwidth, parallelism, multidimensional capability, and high storage density. The most time-consuming operations in communication networks, such as switching and routing, are performed in the optical domain in the proposed system. Furthermore, the OPTIMP does not suffer from optical/electrical conversion bottle-necks and can perform switching and routing in the range of gigabits/s. OPTIMP has three main functional modules: a timespace conversion module, a parallel search and routing look-up table, and an optically controlled switching module. The sourcedestination (SD) information from a message is first converted to the spatial domain. The routing table stores all SD codes and the corresponding control codes for the switching module. The SD code serves as a microprogrammed instruction (similar to that in processor designs). The routing table is searched in parallel (single step) by means of a cylindrical system, and control signals corresponding to the matched S-D row from the table are used to control the switching network. Based on the SEED array technology, the switching module can be reconfigured in gigahertz range and can provide high bandwidth. The proposed design can have significant application to high-speed communication networks as well as to high-speed interconnection networks for parallel computers.

© 1990 Optical Society of America