Terabit Burst Switching

Abstract

This report summarizes the results of an architectural study on Terabit Burst Switching. The purpose of this study was to explore alternative architectures for very high performance switching for data communication, using a combination of optical and electronic technologies. We explore two alternative implementations of the burst switching concept in detail, one using a hybrid architecture with an electronic core, and an integrated architecture using an all optical data path. We also briefly discuss an approach using optical TDM. Our results show that using the hybrid architecture, it is feasible to construct systems with aggregate capacities of tens of terabits per second and that efficiently support highly dynamic data communication applications with individual channel rates of 10 Gb/s. The integrated architectures allow greater scalability and superior performance, but their viability rests of the development of inexpensive optical wavelength conversion devices. Appropriate devices could be available in five to ten years.