PHOTONIC SWITCHING FOR INTERCONNECTION OF EVENT SCANNERS TO EVENT PROCESSORS

A SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM ENCOUNTERED IN PROCESSING DATA COLLECTED BY HIGH ENERGY PARTICLE ACCELERATORS, SUCH AS THE SUPERCONDUCTING SUPER COLLIDER (SSC), IS THE INTERCONNECTION OF A LARGE NUMBER OF EVENT SCANNERS (DETECTORS) TO A LARGE NUMBER OF EVENT PROCESSORS (COMPUTERS). VERY HIGH DATA RATES, INCREASING DISTANCES BETWEEN SENSORS AND PROCESSORS, AND ISOLATION FROM ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE FAVOR FIBER OPTIC INTERCONNECTIONS. PHOTONIC SWITCHING (AS OPPOSED TO ELECTRONIC SWITCHING), WHICH MAY BE REQUIRED AT SOME THRESHOLD OF DATA RATES, IS DESIRABLE IN ORDER TO ELIMINATE THE EXTRA OPTICAL-TO-ELECTRONIC CONVERSION REQUIRED FOR ELECTRONIC SWITCHING. THIS PROJECT IS EXAMINING THE USE OF PHOTONIC SWITCHING FOR ROUTING SUCH DATA, ALLOWING THE COLLECTION OF ALL FRAGMENTS OF EVENTS (FROM DIFFERENT DETECTORS) AT SEPARATE PROCESSORS FOR EACH EVENT. ALTERNATIVE SWITCH ARCHITECTURES AND TECHNOLOGIES BASED ON EXPERIENCE IN PHOTONIC SWITCHING ARE BEING STUDIED AND THEY INCLUDE THE OPTICAL MATRIX-VECTOR MULTIPLIER, THE OPTICAL BARREL SHIFTER, AND A SCALABLE SWITCH DESIGN BASED ON SWITCHABLE SPLITTERS AND COMBINERS. THIS UNIQUE PROPRIETARYSWITCH DESIGN, WHICH COULD MAKE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO SOLVING THE STATED PROBLEM, IT IS RECOMMENDED BASED ON THE CURRENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE SSC REQUIREMENTS IN TERMS OF NUMBER OF NODES, SWITCH RECONFIGURATION TIMES, AND LOSS AND CROSSTALK PARAMETERS. THE PHASE I APPROACH INCLUDES A DEFINITION OF REQUIREMENTS, SWITCH ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY TRADEOFFS, AND A PRELIMINARY DESIGN FOR THE PHOTONIC SWITCH. THE PHASE II EFFORT WILL INCLUDE A PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION.