Optical Switching

1Optical Switches

Rajan Agrahari¹, Sambit Kumar Ghosh², and Somak Bhattacharyya²

¹ Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Patna, Bihar, India

² Department of Electronics Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

1.1 Introduction

Any communication system needs three essential components, viz., a source, a receiver, and a medium of transmission. The terminology changes depending on the mode of the communication systems. In modern‐day optical communication, a semiconductor laser has been generally used as the source and optical fiber as the transmission medium. The demand for bandwidth is increasing with the introduction of new applications, viz., grid computing, smart TV systems with live internet broadcasting services, etc. The emergence of three‐dimensional (3D) movies in multiplexes, as well as in‐home entertainment systems, demands more bandwidth of data transmission through optical communication. In order to enhance the transmission rate and bandwidth available on the optical fiber, the other ends of the optical network system need to be improved. The other ends of the optical network include a range of detectors, multiplexers, switches, and buffers [1, 2].

A switch is embedded in the optical communication system to route the message signal under the supervision of the control signals. The message signal could be large in size or a large block of multiplexed data traffic or a series ...