Fast optical switch

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11570125-B2
Application number	US-202016985634-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 5, 2020
Priority date	Jul 24, 2020
Publication date	Jan 31, 2023
Grant date	Jan 31, 2023

Abstract

A fast optical switch and networks comprising fast optical switches are disclosed herein. In an example embodiment, a fast optical switch includes two or more fabric switches; a first selector switch; and a second selector switch. The first selector switch may selectively pass a signal to one of the two or more fabric switches. The one of the two or more fabric switches may act on the received signal to provide a switched signal and the second selector switch may selectively receive the switched signal provided by the one of the two or more fabric switches. A slot of the fast optical switch comprises a transmission window of one of the two or more fabric switches that occurs in parallel with at least a portion of a reconfiguration window of the other of the two or more fabric switches.

First claim

That which is claimed:

1. An optical switch comprising:
two or more fabric switches;
a first selector switch; and
a second selector switch,
wherein the first selector switch is configured to selectively pass a signal to one of the two or more fabric switches,
wherein the one of the two or more fabric switches that received the signal is configured to provide a switched signal to the second selector switch,
wherein the second selector switch is configured to selectively receive the switched signal provided by the one of the two or more fabric switches, and
wherein reconfiguration of the two or more fabric switches is characterized by a reconfiguration time, reconfiguration of the first selector switch and the second selector switch is characterized by a switching time, and the reconfiguration time of the fabric switches is longer than the switching time of the selector switches.

2. The optical switch of claim 1 , wherein a slot of the optical switch comprises a transmission window of one of the two or more fabric switches that occurs at least in part in parallel with a reconfiguration window of the other of the two or more fabric switches.

3. The optical switch of claim 1 , wherein a slot of the optical switch is substantially equal to or less than the reconfiguration time of the fabric switches.

4. The optical switch of claim 3 , wherein the two or more fabric switches comprise n fabric switches, n an integer greater than or equal to two, and the slot of the optical switch is substantially equal to the reconfiguration time divided by (n−1).

5. The optical switch of claim 1 , wherein each of the two or more fabric switches, the first selector switch, and the second selector switch is an optical switch.

6. The optical switch of claim 1 , wherein each of the two or more fabric switches comprises a collection of switches arranged in a matrix configuration.

7. The optical switch of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second selector switches is configured to amplify the signal or switched signal, respectively.

8. The optical switch of claim 1 , wherein the first and second selector switches are configured to select a fabric switch of the two or more fabric switches responsive to at least one of (a) an electrical or optical signal or (b) a wavelength that characterizes a signal to be provided/received responsive to the selection.

9. The optical switch of claim 1 , wherein the two or more fabric switches are configured to reconfigure to a particular permutation responsive to an electrical or optical signal indicating the particular permutation.

10. The optical switch of claim 1 , wherein the optical switch is configured to be controlled such that (a) reconfiguration of the first fabric switch occurs while the first selector switch is configured to pass the signal to the second fabric switch and the second selector switch is configured to receive the switched signal from the second fabric switch and (b) reconfiguration of the second fabric switch occurs while the first selector switch is configured to pass the signal to the first fabric switch and the second selector switch is configured to receive the switched signal from the first fabric switch.

11. An optical network comprising:
at least one optical transmitter element;
at least one optical receiver element;
at least one optical switch disposed in an optical path between the at least one optical transmitter element and the at least one optical receiver element, the at least one optical switch comprising:
two or more fabric switches;
a first selector switch; and
a second selector switch,
wherein the first selector switch is configured to selectively pass a signal to one of the two or more fabric switches,
wherein the one of the two or more fabric switches that received the signal is configured to provide a switched signal to the second selector switch,
wherein the second selector switch is configured to selectively receive the switched signal provided by the one of the two or more fabric switches, and
wherein reconfiguration of the two or more fabric switches is characterized by a reconfiguration time, reconfiguration of the first selector switch and the second selector switch is characterized by a switching time, and the reconfiguration time of the fabric switches is longer than the switching time of the selector switches.

12. The optical network of claim 11 , wherein the reconfiguration time is the time required for a fabric switch of the two or more fabric switches to reconfigure its internal parts in order to implement a different permutation.

13. The optical network of claim 11 , wherein a slot of the optical switch is substantially equal to or less than the reconfiguration time of the fabric switches.

14. The optical network of claim 11 , wherein the two or more fabric switches comprise n fabric switches, the first selector switch is a one to n demultiplexer, and the second selector switch is an n to one multiplexer.

15. The optical network of claim 11 , wherein each of the two or more fabric switches, the first selector switch, and the second selector switch is an optical switch.

16. The optical network of claim 11 , wherein each of the two or more fabric switches comprises a collection of switches arranged in a matrix configuration.

17. The optical network of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the first and second selector switches is configured to amplify the signal or switched signal, respectively.

18. The optical network of claim 11 , wherein the first and second selector switches are configured to select a fabric switch of the two or more fabric switches responsive to at least one of (a) an electrical or optical signal or (b) a wavelength that characterizes a signal to be provided/received responsive to the selection.

19. The optical network of claim 11 , wherein the each of the two or more fabric switches are configured to reconfigure to a particular permutation responsive to an electrical or optical signal indicating the particular permutation.

Assignees

• Mellanox Technologies Ltd

Inventors

• Bakopoulos Paraskevas
• Patronas Ioannis (Giannis)
• Mentovich Elad

Classifications

• H04Q2011/0052

  Interconnection of switches · CPC title

• H04Q11/0005

  Switch and router aspects · CPC title

• H04L49/1507 Primary

  Distribute and route fabrics, e.g. sorting-routing or Batcher-Banyan · CPC title

• H04L49/103 Primary

  using a shared central buffer; using a shared memory · CPC title

• H04Q2011/005

  Arbitration and scheduling · CPC title