A scalable optoelectronic ATM network for workstations

In this paper, we introduce the Illinois Pulsar-based Optical Interconnect (iPOINT) testbed, and present performance results obtained for the FPGA prototype switch in a working environment consisting of an optical network of Sun SPARCStations and other local and wide-area ATM switches. 1. INTRODUCTION Asynchronous Transfer Mode(ATM) networks can provide a high bandwidth optical backbone for the future National Information Infastructure ("Information Superhighway") [1]. While photonic devices are well suited for high-bandwidth digital communications, the ATM protocol imposes specific switch requirements in terms of cell length, header translation, cell ordering, and buffering that make the design of an all optic switch difficult. In this paper, we introduce the Illinois Pulsar-based Optical Interconnect (iPOINT) testbed for optical interconnection of workstations, a scalable Pulsar switch that maximizes the utility of photonic, electronic, and optoelectronic devices while simultaneous..