What's Multicast Optical Switch (MCS)?

The MCS multicast switching optical switch module is a multicast switching optical switch (MCS) based onPLCtechnology and MEMS technology. It can route any optical input to any output. It is a next-generation reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexing system (ROADM) ) key components.

Optical add-drop multiplex reconfigurable device (ROADM) is a kind of optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM), which can add or remove one or more optical signals from the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) transmission link.This equipment can be used in Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) system. Through remote reconfiguration, service wavelengths can be dynamically added or dropped. That is to say, the wavelength of up and down services can be assigned arbitrarily according to the needs, so as to realize the flexible scheduling of the services.

The multicast switching optical switch is one of the core devices in the reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexing system(ROADM). Cooperating with the wavelength selective switch (WSS), it can realize the wavelength-independent and direction-independent, conflict-free configuration flexibility. This is of great significance for realizing the flexibility and low cost of network construction.Structure of multicast switching optical switch.

Two independent MCS functional units are integrated in a single module. Every functional unit is composed of M independent 1x16 PLC Splitters and N independent 1x8 MEMS optical switches. MCS M×N provides connections from N add (or drop) ports to M directions. With the continuous expansion of the network scale and the increasing demand for cross-node and uplink and downlink channel capacity, WSS+MCS will be asmartchoice for telecom operators and system operators under the new generation of CDC-ROADM for optical networks. Simple, flexible and unlimited network resource configuration capabilities can greatly reduce the operating costs of operators.

Main modules of OXC:

1. Optical Cross Matrix. The OXC of pure optical cross matrix is still in the stage of research and development. One of the main problems is that there is no optical switching matrix with good performance and price ratio, scalable capacity, stable and reliable. At present, the main development direction is electromechanical switch (MEMS) new optical switch. The main indicators of the optical switch matrix are independent of polarization, high optical channel isolation, small insertion loss, small channel loss, good channel uniformity, and good multi-wavelength operation capability.

2. Wavelength Converter. The wavelength converter can convert the signal from one wavelength to another wavelength to realize the exchange of the wave domain. There are currently two basic ways and the all-optical way. The optical-electrical hybrid method has excellent performance in terms of power, signal regeneration, wavelength and polarization sensitivity, but it is opaque to different transmission code formats and bit rates. Therefore, the wavelength converter in OXC uses the all-optical conversion method.

3. EDFA is to effectively compensate line loss and node internal loss, and extend the transmission distance. EDFA has the characteristics of wide frequency band, transparency to modulation mode and transmission code rate. Difference of each wavelength channel within the allowable range, and prevents serious nonlinear effects on the system after cascading EDFAs of multiple nodes.

4. Power Equalizer. The power equalizer keeps the optical power difference of each wavelength channel within the allowable range, and prevents serious nonlinear effects on the system after cascading EDFAs of multiple nodes.

5. Control & Management Unit. The control and management unit realizes the control and management of each functional module of the OXC equipment. It has an automatic protection switching function, and can also support end-to-end connection assignment of the optical transport network, dynamically configure wavelength routing, and quickly protect and restore network transmission services.