Abstract
Keywords: optical circuit switch, grouped switching, liquid crystal, polarization, optical networking, data center, photonic switching, bulk switching, parallel switching
Abstract
Optical circuit switches are a vital part of datacenter networking and machine learning infrastructure because of their ability to switch large amounts of bandwidth in an energy efficient, low latency, and data/format signaling agnostic manner. However, common approaches for switching groups of ports, such as parallelizing multiple optical circuit switches or optically multiplexing signals, encounter scalability limitations as bandwidth demands increase and per-fiber bandwidth saturates. To address these challenges, this publication describes a system and method for switching groups of optical ports in a coordinated fashion. The approach utilizes a single optical circuit switch and its ports to switch a group of parallel signals together using a single bulk switching device. The technique is based on manipulating the polarization of light. An incoming light beam from an optical transceiver is split into two beams with different polarizations. The polarization state of these beams is then adjusted so they can be switched together by a single liquid crystal element. This allows for the efficient, low-latency switching of large amounts of data, which is beneficial for large-scale data centers and machine learning applications. This method of using a single bulk switching device for a group of parallel signals provides a scalable alternative to using multiple parallel switches or multiplexing signals.
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Recommended Citation
N/A, "Optical Circuit Switches for Grouped Port Switching", Technical Disclosure Commons, ()
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/10375