Photonic Switching of Universal Time-Slots (5-15)

An experimental switching system has been built in which N autonomous electronic time-division multiplexing modules interconnect through a photonic time-multiplexed switching network. The system is called DiSCO, for Distributed Switching with Centralized Optics. DiSCO switches inter-module voice and data calls, inter-module control messages, video calls, and other wide-band connections over time-multiplexed network paths through its photonic center-stage. These photonic network paths, called Universal Time-Slots, are transparent to data and are independent of transmitter and receiver bit rate. This photonic center-stage application, its dilated Benes network architecture, and DiSCO's Time-Space-Time system architecture match well with Lithium niobate technology.