The Optical Switching To Optimize Fiber Optics Communications

The recent introduction of DWDM into telecommunications backbones has fueled the need for optical switching to fully optimize fiber -optics communications.An optical switch provides functionality similar to an electrical switch can be broadly categorised as either opaque or to a particular output port.Optical switches can be broadly categorised as either opaque or transparent.Opaque systems require one or more optical to electrical conversions to switch data using conventional methods.Also, it is within the electrical domain that signals are managed and monitored.Opaque systems are also known as oil switches.Transparent switches are further referenced as Fiber Optical Switch .Throughout this report, we are inclined to use the of terms all optical and OEO.

While discussing terminology, it will perhaps be useful for the reader to be aware that optical switches have sometimes been raised in the past as photogenic switches, although the term seems mostly to have referred to all optical switches.However, the term plutonic appears, for some reason, to be divided into disuse.Meanwhile, three terms that once had fairly distinct meanings appear to be losing preciseness within the context of optical networking.These terms are switched,cross-connect, and router.In classical telecommunicatios parlance, a switch as a physical device that can make rapid connections among a large number of endpoints.Perfect examples of such a switch would be the Lucent 5ESS and Nortel Digital Multiplex System machines that dominate telephone company central offices.

A cross connection is truly a specialized kind of switch intended to reconsider a network to meet changing needs or for restoration in times of a network problem.As such, it much switch large individual bandwidths and will need fewer ports than, say the DMS.A conventional example of a cross connection would be the Lucent Digital Acess and Croos connect System. The Opto-mechanical Switch that are dealt within this report are actually cross connects.The day in which 5ESS are replaced with an all optical equivalent is still a long way off.


Finally, there is the issue of routers, classically, a router was a software device that was used to route messages through a packet network.Routers have gradually become to IP networks with switches are to traditional telecom networks.However, the latest generations of IP boxes combine both classical routing and classical switching features-routing to switch depending on the nature of the traffic being transported.Thai merging of the roughening and switch world will have nothing to do with the optical networking revolution, but rather has merely received yet, another semantic twist in the optical era--thanks to Lucent Technologies.This vendor; s Lamdarouter is likely to be an influential n product.However, it is no longer a router at all --it is a cross connection.Meanwhile, real router vendors are adding optical interfaces to their boxes.At some time in the future, a true optical router may emerge that would utilize managed optical packets in an IP environment regardless of the fact that, again, such as product is a long way from development.