A MULTISERVICE OPTICAL SWITCH

摘要

A time division multiplexed optical switching system switches a signal from an ingress port to an egress port. The system comprises an optical switching fabric, ingress and egress line cards and a switch control fabric. The optical switching fabric routes an optical signal from one of M ingress fibers to one of N egress fibers. The ingress line card is coupled between the ingress port and the optical switching fabric for receiving the signal at the ingress port. The ingress line card comprises a buffer for storing the ingress signal and transmits the signal to the optical switching fabric. The egress line card is coupled between the egress port and the optical switching fabric for receiving the optical signal from the egress fiber of the optical switching fabric. The egress line card comprises a buffer for storing the optical signal and transmits the signal to the egress port. The switch control fabric allots time slots to the ingress line card for transmitting to the optical switching fabric.