Performance assessment of a nanoseconds and modular Photonic Integrated Wavelength Selective Switch for Optical Data Centre Networks

We assess the performance of a photonic integrated 1x8 WDM (8 channel) wavelength selective switch module to realize a modular 8x8x8λ WDM cross-connect switch. The 1x8 wavelength switch module exploits SOA technology for nanoseconds wavelength and time switching operation to enable the implementation of a low latency optical data center network. Experimental results confirm a cross-talk lower than -30 dB, loss less and error-free operation at 10 Gb/s and 20 Gb/s. The results shown in this study and the fact that the device proposed is an evolved version of a similar modular architecture with double the channels are clearly the proof of the potentialities of this approach to scale up to an even larger port count