Abstract
A layered, digital control architecture is proposed and demonstrated for
relaxed-tolerance multistage photonic circuits. Preallocated optical paths and
precalibrated switches are used in a hierarchical control scheme to anticipate
and equalize power fluctuations from multiple input paths. Fast reconfigurability
is facilitated, which ensures predefined optical powers at the switch
stage outputs without incurring excess time delay or power transients. Experimental
validation has led to the development of a dual stage switch router
with three input nodes each transmitting four 10 Gbit/s wavelength multiplexed
payloads. Low penalty power equalization is observed after both a first
and a second stage switch and is extendable to 10??10 Gbit/s operation. We
show that the output power is indeed set to within 0.5 dB at 0 dBm for an input
power dynamic range of more than 20 dB. The combination of selfcalibration
and modular control demonstrated in a two stage switch topology
is believed to be scalable to more sophisticated multistage networks. As the
concept does not require delay lines, it is believed that it will have advantages
in facilitating the integration of controlled photonic circuits.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 180-188 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Journal of Optical Networking |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2007 |