Optical interconnect fabrics and optical switches

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9354412-B2
Application number	US-201013697760-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 19, 2010
Priority date	May 19, 2010
Publication date	May 31, 2016
Grant date	May 31, 2016

Abstract

Optical interconnect fabrics and optical switches are disclosed. In one aspect, an optical interconnect fabric comprises one or more bundles of optical broadcast buses. Each optical broadcast bus is optically coupled at one end to a node and configured to transmit optical signals generated by the node. The optical fabric also includes a number of optical tap arrays distributed along each bundle of optical broadcast buses. Each optical tap array is configured to divert a portion of the optical power associated with the optical signals carried by a bundle of optical broadcast buses to one of the nodes.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An optical interconnect fabric comprising:
one or more bundles of optical broadcast buses, each optical broadcast bus optically coupled at one end to a given node of a plurality of nodes and configured to transmit optical signals generated by the given node of the plurality of nodes; and
a plurality of optical tap arrays distributed along each bundle of optical broadcast buses, wherein each optical tap array of the plurality of optical tap arrays is optically coupled to a given respective node of the plurality of nodes, and each optical tap array of the plurality of optical tap arrays is configured to divert a portion of optical power associated with each of the optical signals carried by each bundle of optical broadcast buses to only the given respective node of the plurality of nodes.

2. The optical interconnect fabric of claim 1 , wherein the optical broadcast bus further comprises a plurality of waveguides.

3. The optical interconnect fabric of claim 2 , wherein the waveguides further comprise at least one of hollow waveguides and optical fibers.

4. The optical interconnect fabric of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of optical tap arrays distributed along a bundle of optical broadcast buses further comprises the optical tap arrays configured so that each node of the plurality of nodes receives approximately the same optical power associated with each optical signal carried in the bundle of optical broadcast buses.

5. The optical interconnect fabric of claim 1 , wherein each optical tap array of the plurality of optical tap arrays comprises one or more optical taps, wherein the number of optical taps in each optical tap array equals the number of nodes.

6. The optical interconnect fabric of claim 1 , wherein the optical tap arrays further comprise pellicle beamsplitters.

7. An optical switch comprising:
an optical backplane including one or more optical interconnect fabrics; and
a plurality of line cards, each line card optically coupled to at least one of the one or more optical interconnect fabrics, wherein each optical interconnect fabric is configured so that each optically coupled line card broadcasts data encoded in optical signals to each optical interconnect fabric, such that a given line card broadcasts a given optical signal and the given line card receives a portion of the given optical signal and a portion of each optical signal from each other line card of the plurality of line cards that is optically coupled to the optical interconnect fabric.

8. The optical switch of claim 7 , wherein each optical interconnect fabrics further comprises:
one or more bundles of optical broadcast buses, each optical broadcast bus optically coupled at one end to a line card of the plurality of line cards and configured to transmit optical signals generated by the line card of the plurality of line cards; and
a number of optical tap arrays distributed along each bundle of optical broadcast buses, wherein each optical tap array is configured to divert a portion of optical power associated with the optical signals carried by a bundle of optical broadcast buses to each line card of the plurality of line cards.

9. The optical switch of claim 8 , wherein each bundle of optical broadcast buses further comprises one or more optical broadcast buses, each optical broadcast bus further comprising a plurality of waveguides.

10. The optical switch of claim 9 , wherein the waveguides further comprise at least one of hollow waveguides and optical fibers.

11. The optical switch of claim 8 , wherein the number of optical tap arrays distributed along a bundle of optical broadcast buses further comprises the optical tap arrays configured so that each line card receives approximately the same optical power associated with each optical signal carried in the bundle of optical broadcast buses.

12. The optical switch of claim 8 , wherein a number of optical elements along each optical broadcast bus equals the number of optical tap arrays that corresponds to the number of line cards.

13. The optical switch of claim 8 , wherein the optical tap arrays further comprise pellicle beamsplitters.

14. The optical switch of claim 7 , wherein each line card is configured to provide multiple external switch ports connected by an internal electronic switch fabric.

15. The optical switch of claim 7 , wherein the number of line cards are arranged in two or more stacks of line cards such that each line card is connected to two or more optical interconnect fabrics enabling each line card to broadcast optical signals to other line cards in the same stack and use the other optical interconnect fabrics to broadcast optical signals to line cards in other stacks.

16. The optical interconnect fabric of claim 1 , wherein each optical tap array of the plurality of optical tap arrays corresponds to a single node of the plurality of nodes.

17. An optical switch comprising:
one or more bundles of optical broadcast buses, each optical broadcast bus being optically coupled at one end to a given node of a plurality of nodes and configured to transmit optical signals generated by the given node of the plurality of nodes; and
a plurality of optical tap arrays, each optical tap array of the plurality of optical tap arrays distributed along the one or more bundles of optical broadcast buses,
wherein each node of the plurality of nodes is in optical communications with at least two respective optical tap arrays of the plurality of optical tap arrays, and each optical tap array of the plurality of optical tap arrays is configured to divert a portion of optical power associated with the optical signals carried by each optical broadcast bus associated with a given bundle of optical broadcast buses to a single respective node of the plurality of nodes.

18. The optical switch of claim 17 , wherein each bundle of optical broadcast buses corresponds to an optical tap array of the plurality of optical tap arrays for each node of the plurality of nodes.

19. The optical switch of claim 17 , wherein at least two bundles of optical broadcast buses correspond to an optical tap array of the plurality of optical tap arrays for each node of the plurality of nodes.

20. The optical switch of claim 17 , wherein each optical tap array of the plurality of optical tap arrays diverts a portion of at least two signals to the respective node of the plurality of nodes.

Assignees

• Binkert Nathan Lorenzo
• Mclaren Moray
• Tan Michael Renne Ty
• Davis Alan Lynn
• Hewlett Packard Entpr Dev Lp

Inventors

• Binkert Nathan Lorenzo
• Mclaren Moray
• Tan Michael Renne Ty
• Davis Alan Lynn

Classifications

• G02B6/43 Primary

  Arrangements comprising a plurality of opto-electronic elements and associated optical interconnections · CPC title