This thesis focuses on designing and demonstrating a nonblocking high performance, broadband packet (ATM) switch. Despite recent advances in electrical switching architectures, practical switch performance is limited by both the technological and physical constraints of electrical devices and wiring. Through an optical switch can have good features, optical devices are yet of poor quality. Therefore, we proposed and studied the switching architecture based on free-space optical interconnections and electrical logic devices. And an exchanging method using packets with a parallel form is introduced. The free-space optical interconnections overcome the defects of electrical switch, such as, the complex connections of the wires. And the exchanging method using packets with a parallel form solves the blocking problem of the switch that result from switching packets with a serial form.
The proposed and demonstrated switch is nonblocking, simple and high performable. Other attractive features of the proposed switch include the guarantee of FIFO packet sequence and the ability of the priority control.
In this thesis, we discuss the performance of the proposed switch and show the experimental results of the (4×4) switch.
