Optical switch is a kind of multi port optical device, the port configuration is: 2 × 2, 1 × n, n × n, in which n × N port optical switch is also known as OXC (optical cross connect switch, matrix optical switch). According to the different port configuration of optical switch, different MEMS chips are needed to realize it. This paper discusses 2 × 2 and 1 × N port optical switch.
2 × 2 port optical switch
The 2 × 2-port optical switch is used to protect the optical fiber ring network. The intelligent optical network based on ROADM technology is a three-tier architecture, including backbone network, metropolitan area network and access network.
Man is a dual fiber ring network connected by ROADM nodes. The optical switch provides protection for the optical fiber ring network. When the optical fiber link or ROADM node fails, the fault node can be bypassed through the through to cross state switching of the optical switch.
With the rapid development of Internet applications, the demand for bandwidth is also growing rapidly, which promotes the construction of E-man based on ROADM technology. Therefore, the market prospect of 2 × 2 port optical switch is good.
1 × N port optical switch
A new generation of CDC (colorless, non directional and non competitive) ROADM, its mainstream technology is 1 × N port WSS (wavelength selective switch) + n × m port WSS, or 1 × N port WSS + n × m port MCS (multicast switch). With the development of ROADM based intelligent optical network, the market demand for MCS optical switch is growing rapidly, especially when ROADM technology sinks from backbone network to man. The structure of 8 × 16 port MCS optical switch consists of eight 1 × 16 port PLC optical splitter and 16 8 × 1 port optical switch. The optical splitter is usually prepared by PLC technology, while the 1 × N port optical switch usually adopts MEMS technology. The most commonly used optical switches are 1 × 8 and 1 × 16 ports.
