Broadband optoelectronic switching and signal processing

The ubiquitous use of photonic systems for transmission of unprecedented volumes of information through fibres requires development of devices to generate, detect, and route the optical signals. Optoelectronic switching techniques involve the use of optical to electronic conversions, inherent in photonic systems, to route the optical signals in the desired manner. Optical 'broadcast' and optoelectronic 'selection' methods are used to accomplish switching of broadband signals, resulting in a data format, rate, and modulation transparent, high quality path through the non-blocking matrix arrangement.;Optoelectronic switching of signal formats ranging from high quality analog video signals to broadband binary digital signals up to 2.5 Gbps is demonstrated with the design and construction of a 10 x 10 prototype. The optoelectronic switch fabric is shown to be fully transparent to data rates and formats. The use of spectrally efficient modulation formats for photonic interconnects is proposed and results are presented to confirm potential increase in data throughput without requiring an increase in bandwidth of the electronic components. Designs for photodetector arrays to enable routing of data rates exceeding 10 GHz bandwidth per channel are also described.;Applications for optoelectronic technology range from use in transparent switching fabrics for multi-wavelength networks to high speed broadband switches for network restoration. Use of optoelectronic switches for network restoration is proposed and results from a sample network study are presented. Broadband signal processing using optoelectronic matrices and fibre delay lines is shown to achieve tunable filters with applications in equalization of multimode fibre dispersion.;Optoelectronic switching is shown to be a cost competitive and technology efficient way of achieving Gigabit data switching capabilities required for telecommunication and computer communication networks.