An ultrafast photonic ATM switch based on bit-interleavemultiplexing

An optical ATM switch is proposed in which cells from individual input channels are time-division multiplexed in a bit-interleave manner. This switch can easily handle multicast switching because it is based on a broadcast-and-select network. Compared to an alternative switch that uses a cell-interleave time-division multiplexing scheme, the proposed optical switch has a much simpler structure. It does not need a cell compressor at each input and a cell expander at each output, which greatly reduces hardware complexity. Feasibility analyzes showed that a 64×64 photonic ATM switch with 2.5 Gb/s input/output is possible using the proposed technology. In an experimental demonstration, 4 b cells were selected from a 55 Gb/s bit-interleave multiplexed cell stream by using a new nonlinear optical fiber switch. With its high switch throughput, our switch is a strong candidate for future large-capacity optical switching nodes     

新型光缓存器和2×622Mb／s ATM光交换系统

本文给出一种新型的光缓存器的结构，以解决在ＡＴＭ光交换中的信元碰撞问题。这种缓存器由光纤延迟线、光波导开关阵及非线性半导体光放大器构成。文中还报告了一种用于交换各用户不同速率的信元（可达６２２Ｍｂ／ｓ）的ＡＴＭ光交换实验系统，系统的总容量为１．２Ｇｂ／ｓ。     

A photonic front-end processor in a WDM ATM multicast switch

Dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technology has provided tremendous transmission capacity in optical fiber communications. However, switching and routing capacity is still far behind transmission capacity. This is because most of today's packet switches and routers are implemented using electronic technologies. Optical packet switches are the potential candidate to boost switching capacity to be comparable with transmission capacity. In this paper, we present a photonic asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) front-end processor that has been implemented and is to be used in an optically transparent WDM ATM multicast (3M) switch. We have successfully demonstrate the front-end processor in two different experiments. One performs cell delineation based on ITU standards and overwrites VCI/VPI optically at 2.5 Gb/s. The other performs cell synchronization, where cells from different input ports running at 2.5 Gb/s are phase-aligned in the optical domain before they are routed in the switch fabric. The resolution of alignment is achieved to the extent of 100 ps (or 1/4 bit). An integrated 1×2 Y-junction semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) switch has been developed to facilitate the cell synchronizer     

Realization of large capacity ATM switches

Large-capacity ATM switches, with switching capacity in excess of 40 Gb/s or 100 Gb/s, are becoming an essential part of network growth. To realize such switches requires technology know-how as well as implementation trade-off considerations. This article provides a system-level exploration of large-capacity ATM switches in terms of switch fabric scalability, cell buffer management, buffer design trade-off, call processing capabilities, and future trends in switch design     

Terahipas: a modular and expandable terabit/second hierarchicallymultiplexing photonic ATM switch architecture

A terabit/second hierarchically multiplexing photonic asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch network architecture, called Terahipas, is proposed. It combines the advantages of photonics (a large bandwidth for transport of cells) and electronics (advanced logical functions for controlling, processing, and routing). It uses a hierarchical photonic multiplexing structure in which several tens of channels with a relatively low bit rate, say 2.4 Gb/s, are first time-multiplexed on an optical highway by shrinking the interval between optical pulses, then a number of optical highways are wavelength-multiplexed (or space-division multiplexed). As a result, the switch capacity can be expanded from the order of 100 Gb/s to the order of 10 Tb/s in a modular fashion. A new implementation scheme for cell buffering is used for eliminating the bottleneck when receiving and storing concurrent optical cells at bit rates as high as 100 Gb/s. This new architecture can serve as the basis of a modular, expandable, high-performance ATM switching system for future broad band integrated service digital networks (B-ISDN's)     

20.8 Gb/s GaAs LSI self-routing switch for ATM switching systems

An 8×8 self-routing hardware switch providing 20.8 Gb/s throughput has been developed for asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching systems. The basic architecture of this switch is a Batcher-Banyan network. A new mechanism for data processing and distributing high-speed signals is proposed. This switching system consists of three LSIs using a 0.5-μm gate GaAs MESFET technology. These LSIs are a switching network LSI for exchanging packet cells with eight cell channels, a negotiation network for screening of cells destined for the same output port, and a demultiplexer LSI for converting the cell streams from the switching network LSI to the eight streams per channel. These LSIs are mounted in a 520-pin multichip module package. The total number of logic gates is 13.3 k, and the power dissipation is 24 W. The switching system fully operates at a data rate of 2.6 Gb/s, and its throughput is 20.8 Gb/s     

Ultrafast photonic ATM switch with optical output buffers

An ultrafast photonic asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) (ULPHA) switch based on a time-division broadcast-and-select network with optical output buffers is presented. The ULPHA switch has an ultra-high throughput and excellent traffic characteristics, since it utilizes ultrashort optical pulses for cell signals and avoids cell contentions by novel optical output buffers. Feasibility studies show that an 80×80 ULPHA switch with 1-Gb/s input/output is possible by applying the present technology, and that more than 1 Tb/s is possible by making a three-stage network using such switches. As an experimental demonstration, 4-bit 40-Gb/s optical cells were generated and certain cells were selected at an output on a self-routing basis. With its high throughput and excellent traffic considerations, the ULPHA switch is a strong candidate for a future large-capacity optical switching node     

Large-scale WDM star-based photonic ATM switches

This paper describes the large-scale photonic asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching systems being developed in NTT Laboratories. It uses wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) techniques to attack 1 TB/s throughput. The architecture is a simple star with modular structure and effectively combines optical WDM techniques and electrical control circuits. Recent achievements in important key technologies leading to the realization of large-scale photonic ATM switches based on the architecture are described. We show that we can obtain a 320 Gb/s system that can tolerate the polarization and wavelength dependencies of optical devices. Our experiments using rack-mounted prototypes demonstrate the feasibility of our architecture. The experiments showed stable system operation and high-speed WDM switching capability up to the total optical bandwidth of 12.8 nm, as well as successful 10 Gb/s 4×4 broadcast-and-select and 2.5 Gb/s 16×16 wavelength-routing switch operations     

A 9.6-Gb/s HEMT ATM switch LSI with event-controlled FIFO

An asynchronous-transfer-mode (ATM) switch LSI was designed for the broadband integrated services digital network (B-ISDN) and fabricated using 0.6-μm high-electron-mobility-transistor (HEMT) technology. To enhance the high-speed performance of direct-coupled FET logic (DCFL), event-controlled logic was used instead of conventional static memory for the first-in first-out (FIFO) buffer circuit. The 4.8-mm×4.7-mm chip contains 7100 DCFL gates. The maximum operating frequency was 1.2 GHz at room temperature with a power dissipation of 3.7 W. The single-chip throughput was 9.6 Gb/s. An experimental 4-to-4 ATM switching module using 16 switch LSIs achieved a throughput of 38.4 Gb/s     

Optical input buffers for the HiPower photonic ATM switch-analysisand experiments

We describe an optical input buffer for the HiPower photonic ATM switch. This buffer can control the cell throughput in accordance with back pressure signals and incoming optical cells. We analyze the cell loss probability of the optical input buffer. Only a small buffer size of five is needed to obtain a cell loss probability of less than 10^-15 with 1024 ports. Experimental 10 Gb/s operation using optical fiber delay lines with gate control circuits shows that the bit error rate of the buffer is less than 10^-12     

Broadcast-and-select photonic ATM switch with frequency divisionmultiplexed output buffers

A photonic ATM switch has been developed with frequency division multiplexed (FDM) output buffers. The switch has a broadcast-and-select network architecture using fixed-frequency-channel transmitters and a passive star configuration. Although it has a simple structure, it can provide either broadcast or multicast switching. The output buffers, which resolve cell contentions, are comprised of fiber delay lines that can easily handle signal speed of over 10 Gb/s. Experimental switching of two-multiplexed 10 Gb/s cells with a 2.8-dB power penalty demonstrated high-speed switching     

A prototype broadcast-and-select photonic ATM switch with a WDMoutput buffer

A rack-mounted prototype of a broadcast-and-select (B and S) photonic ATM switch is fabricated. This switch has an optical output buffer utilizing wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) signals. The WDM technology solves. The cell-collision problem in a broadcast-and-select network and leads to a simple network architecture and the broadcast/multicast function. The prototype can handle 10-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) coded cells and 5-Gb/s Manchester-coded cells and has a switch size of four. In this prototype, the level and timing design are key issues. Cell-by-cell level fluctuation is overcome by minimizing the loss difference between the optical paths and adopting a differential receiver capable of auto-thresholding. The temperature control of delay lines was successful in maintaining the phase synchronization. Using these techniques, we are able to provide a WDM highway with a bit error rate of less than 10^-12. Fundamental photonic ATM switching functions, such as optical buffering and fast wavelength-channel selection, are achieved. We show our experimental results and demonstrate the high performance and stable operation of a photonic ATM switch for use in high-speed optical switching systems as an interconnect switch for a modular ATM switch and an ATM cross-connect switch     

Breakthrough technologies for the high-performance electrical ATMswitching system

A high-performance electrical asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching system is described with the goal of Tb/s ATM switching. The first step system was to use advanced Si-bipolar very large scale integrated (VLSI) technologies and the multichip technique. 1.0 μm bipolar SST technologies and Cu-polyimide multilayer MCM realized a 160 Gb/s throughput ATM system. The performance limitations of the 160 Gb/s system were power supply/cooling and module interconnection. The new ATM switching system, named OPTIMA-1, adopted optical interconnection/distribution to overcome the limitations and achieve 640 Gb/s. The system uses high-performance complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) devices and optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) interconnection. Combining OPTIMA-1 with optical cell-by-cell routing functions, i.e., photonic packet routing, can realize variable bandwidth links for 5 Tb/s ATM systems. This paper first reviews high-performance electrical ATM (packet) switching system architecture and hardware technologies. In addition, system limitations are described. Next, the important breakthrough technology of optical WDM interconnection is highlighted. These technologies are adopted to form OPTIMA-1, a prototype of which is demonstrated. The key technologies of the system are advanced 80 Gb/s CMOS/MCM, electrical technologies, and 10 Gb/s, 8 WDM, 8×8 optical interconnection. Details of implementation technologies are also described. Optical cell-by-cell (packet-by-packet) routing is now being studied. From the architectural viewpoint, dynamic link bandwidth sharing will be adopted. In addition, an AWG that performs cell-by-cell routing and a distributed large scale ATM system are realized. Optical routing achieves the 5 Tb/s needed in future B-ISDN ATM backbone systems     

A high-speed-retry banyan switch architecture for giga-bit-rate BISDN networks

This paper proposes a high-speed ATM switch architecture for handling cell rates of several Gb/s in a broadband communication switching system or cross-connect system. The proposed switch architecture, named the high-speed-retry banyan switch, employs a bufferless banyan network between input and output buffers; a cell is repeatedly transmitted from an input buffer until it can be successfully transmitted to the desired output buffer. A simple cell-retransmission algorithm, is employed as is a ring-arbitration algorithm for cell conflict. They are suitable for FIFO type buffers and bufferless highspeed devices. Good traffic characteristics which are independent of switch size are achieved for an internal speed ratio of only four times the input line speed. A prototype system with the internal speed of 1·2 Gb/s is constructed in order to confirm the basic operation of the high-speed-retry banyan switch. The prototype system, even in its present state, could be used to realize a giga-bit-rate BISDN switching system.     

A 2.5 Gb/s ATM switch chip set

The design and implementation of two application specific integrated circuits used to build an ATM switch are described. The chip set is composed of the CMC which is an input/output processor of ATM cells implemented on a BICMOS 0.7 μm technology and the ICM, a 0.7 μm CMOS IC, that performs cell switching at 68 MHz. The ATM switch exploits parallelism and segmentation to perform 2.5 Gb/s switching per input/output. The main advantage of the high-speed link rates in the range of Gb/s, is the exploitation of statistical gain with bursty high peak rate sources. Another feature of the high speed ATM switches is that the number of interface devices and stages is reduced on an ATM network. To demonstrate the usefulness of the switch, an evaluation of the network efficiency improvement by using statistical gain is presented in the paper     

Ultrafast time-domain technology and its application in all-optical signal processing

In this paper, we review recent advances in ultrafast optical time-domain technology with emphasis on the use in optical packet switching. In this respect, several key building blocks, including high-rate laser sources applicable to any time-division-multiplexing (TDM) application, optical logic circuits for bitwise processing, and clock-recovery circuits for timing synchronization with both synchronous and asynchronous data traffic, are described in detail. The circuits take advantage of the ultrafast nonlinear transfer function of semiconductor-based devices to operate successfully at rates beyond 10 Gb/s. We also demonstrate two more complex circuits-a header extraction unit and an exchange-bypass switch-operating at 10 Gb/s. These two units are key blocks for any general-purpose packet routing/switching application. Finally, we discuss the system perspective of all these modules and propose their possible incorporation in a packet switch architecture to provide low-level but high-speed functionalities. The goal is to perform as many operations as possible in the optical domain to increase node throughput and to alleviate the network from unwanted and expensive optical-electrical-optical conversions.     

A high-speed CMOS circuit for 1.2-Gb/s 16*16 ATM switching

The authors describe a 0.7- mu m CMOS asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch circuit of 350 K transistors, the kernel of a fully autonomous 16*16 ATM switching matrix devoted to telecommunications. This matrix is able to switch ATM multiplexes with a throughput of up to 1.2 Gb/s per access line, and was implemented using 16 receiver/transmitter circuits and a control circuit. The architecture of the ATM switch circuit is based on a large embedded and shared dual-access memory. Each chip processes 4-b slices of each incoming multiplex. Seven such chips working in parallel are enough to achieve standard ATM cell switching. Up-to-date test features, such as boundary scan, built-in self-test, and redundancy were implemented in the circuit.<>     

ATM in B-ISDN communication systems and VLSI realization

The Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is considered to be a key technology for B-ISDN. This paper discusses VLSI trends and how VLSI's can be applied to realize ATM switching node systems for B-ISDN. Implementing a practical ATM node system will require the development of technologies such as high-throughput ATM switch LSI's with up to 10 Gb/s capacity and SDH termination technology based on optical fiber transmission. An ATM traffic-handling mechanism with Quality of Service (QoS) controls such as ATM layer performance monitoring, virtual channel handling, usage parameter control, and VP shaping requires several hundred thousand logic gates and several megabytes of high-speed static RAM; VLSI's must be introduced if such mechanisms are to be implemented. ATM node system architecture is based on design principles of a building-block-type structure and hierarchical multiplexing. The basic ATM call handling module, the AHM, is composed mainly of a line termination block and a self-routing switch block; we analyzed this module from the viewpoint of the amount of hardware it requires. Finally, future ATM node systems are discussed on the basis of 0.2-μm VLSI development trends and hardware requirements such as the need for ultrahigh integration of logic gate with memory, multichip modules, and low power dissipation technology     

32×32 shared buffer type ATM switch VLSIs for B-ISDNs

A set of 0.8 μm CMOS VLSIs developed for shared buffer switches in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching systems is described. A 32×32 unit switch consists of eight buffer memory VLSIs, two memory control VLSIs, and two commercially available first in first out (FIFO) memory LSIs. Using the VLSIs, the switch can be mounted on a printed board. To provide excellent traffic characteristics not only under random traffic conditions but also under burst traffic conditions, this switch has a 2-Mb shared buffer memory, the largest reported to date. which can save 4096 cells among 32 output ports. This switch has a priority control function to meet the different cell loss rate requirements and switching delay requirements of different service classes. A multicast function and a 600 Mb/s link switch architecture, which are suitable for ATM network systems connecting various media, and an expansion method using the 32×32 switching board to achieve large-scale switching systems such as 256×256 or 1024×1024 switches are discussed     

Scalable multi-QoS IP+ATM switch router architecture

This article proposes a scalable multi-QoS IP+ATM switch router architecture. The proposed switch router is based on a core ATM switching system with multi-QoS capability. Forwarding engines and a routing engine are attached in front of the line cards of the ATM switching system. The FEs and RE are interconnected with each other via internal VCs. A novel longest matching algorithm is employed at the FE to achieve packet forwarding at wire-speed of OC-12c rate (622.08 Mb/s). Wire-speed unicast and multicast packet forwarding are performed using point-to-point and point-to-multipoint VCs in a unified way. Because FEs and RE are decoupled from the base ATM switching system, the full spectrum of ATM QoS capability is nicely applied for IP QoS control with a packet classification at the edge of the network. The core switching fabric is scalable from 40 to 160 Gb/s capacity (371 MPPS in terms of packet forwarding throughput). Feedback rate control is employed at each line card to eliminate congestion in the high-speed core switching fabric even with a small amount of buffer.