Page 156 - Optical Switching And Networking Handbook

07_200023_CH06/Batesx 1/17/01 10:05 AM Page 141

Optical Switching Systems and Technologies 141

Despite its name, the device is not actually a router. It is more
akin to a cross-connect, a static switch in conventional telephone net-
works. Each LambdaRouter can take 256 fibers in and put 256 fibers
out.The traffic is carried on waves of light that are switched through
the LambdaRouter using two banks of adjustable circular mirrors
that are each a half millimeter in diameter. This is shown in Figure
6-10.
Lucent uses a MEMS switch with its WaveStar LambdaRouter, an
all-optical switch capable of routing 10 times more information than
is traveling today across the worldwide Internet. It uses 256
micromirrors, on less than a square inch of silicon, to instantly direct
and route optical signals from fiber to fiber in the network without
first converting them to electrical form, as done today. This will save
service providers up to 25 percent in operational costs and enable
them to direct network traffic 16 times faster than with electrical
switches. The Lucent micromirror is shown in Figure 6-11.

Figure 6-10
The two rows of
arrays (Lucent)

Source: Lucent