A scalable, self-routed, terabit capacity, photonic interconnection network

Abstract

We present SPINet (Scalable Photonic Integrated Network), an optical switching architecture particularly designed for photonic integration. The performance of SPlNet-based networks is investigated through simulations, and it is shown that SPINet can provide the bandwidth demanded by high performance computing systems while meeting the ultra-low latency and scalability requirements. Experiments are conducted on a model SOA-based switching node to verify the feasibility of the SPINet concepts, and demonstrate error-free routing of 160 Gb/s peak bandwidth payload.