OPTICAL EXCHANGE CIRCUIT WITH BUFFER

摘要

PURPOSE:To attain circuit integration even when number of incoming lines and outgoing lines are increased by using an optical fiber of a prescribed length connected among plural optical switches as an optical signal buffer. CONSTITUTION:Plural 4-input and 4-output(or over) optical switches 1-3 are arranged in serial. They are interconnected with each other by an optical fiber of a prescribed length, an input to a head optical switch 1 and an output from a tail end optical switch 3 are connected by an optical fiber 14 of a prescribed length to form an optical loop comprising the plural optical switches 1-3. Furthermore, the plural optical signal inputs are inputted to idle input terminals of the plural optical switches 1-3 decentralizingly and plural optical signal outputs are extracted from idle output terminals of the plural optical switches 1-3 and the outputs are outputted to output paths A-F scatteringy. Since optical fibers 10-15 of a prescribed length interconnecting among the plural optical switches 1-3 act like memories utilizing a delay time in the optical fiber, the memory capacity is increased.