Rapidly Reconfiguring Optical Interconnects

Missile defense systems for battle management require dense computing for several extremely complex simultaneous information processing requirements. The computation architecture must be highly flexible and rapidly reconfigurable. OPTELECOM, Inc. offers to develop a proprietary optical switch concept for use in BMDO applications. The basic switch element is an in-fiber grating whose reflection spectrum is shifted momentarily by the action of a focused acoustic wave. A switched optical carrier frequency selective optical tap is produced by using the switch as an element within an all fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The OPTELECOM switch is superior to present day optical switches by virtue of lower insertion loss, optical frequency selectivity, rugged construction and potential for reduced cost. The switch enables use of a given optical fiber grid by many independent signals without interference or relative timing constraints. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and other packet data switching protocols are readily supported by systems using the OPTELECOM switch. Proposed Phase I work is design of critical experiments to characterize the OPTELECOM switch and definition of functional elements which will provide the maximum stimulus within BMDO optical computing and optical signal processing programs. Phase I effort also includes development of a Phase II program plan for functional element demonstrations. Successful completion of the proposed optical data interconnect investigation will identify and characterize an important component for future dense computing systems. The proposed component, and computing architectures enabled by unique component features, will significantly advance United States information infrastructure capabilities for both military and commercial applications.