A Photonic Time-Division Switching Experiment

An experimental switching system is being designed and built for interconnecting broadband circuits through a photonic time-multiplexed switching network under DFINITY® Communications System call control. The system is called DiSCO, for Distributed Switching with Centralized Optics. The DiSCO system is designed to switch broadband voice, data, and video calls over time multiplexed network paths through a guided-wave photonic network. The photonic network paths are transparent to data and are thus independent of transmitter and receiver bit rate. They are formed by linking together one or more Universal Time-Slots each capable of continuously transporting between 64 Kbps and 3 Mbps of voice, data or video signals. DiSCO's Time-Space-Time system architecture, the photonic broadband switching application, and its Cross-Talk Avoiding switching network topology are well matched with the emerging lithium niobate guided-wave directional coupler and digital optical switch technologies. The DEFINITY System architecture and technology platform is being used and extended in a natural way to implement this experimental system. While this gives the prototype a “production quality” appearance, this should not be taken as an indication that DiSCO will be offered as a commercial product.