Switching system having multiple parallel switching networks

摘要

A switching system having a control network for establishment of a path and a data switching network responsive to the path determined by the control network for switching data between a plurality of input ports to a plurality of output ports. The control network is a self-routing network that is fabricated utilizing electronic devices; whereas, the data switching network is fabricated using photonic devices. The electronic network is of the butterfly architecture and the photonic network is of the cross-bar architecture. A translation circuit is utilized to convert the path determined through the self-routing butterfly control network for use in determining the path through the photonic cross-bar network.