| Summary: | The Canadian Institute for Telecommunication Research (CITR) has undertaken a five year "Major Project" in Optical Systems and Devices. As part of this project, researchers in the Microelectronics and Computer System (MACS) Laboratory at McGill University are developing a reconfigurable free-space optical backplane architecture capable of supporting terabits per second (Tbps) throughput. The optical backplane can be dynamically reconfigured to support the switching schemes used in both multiprocessor systems and in telecommunication systems. In this thesis, we will consider the performance of the optical backplane when it is configured to support a 160 Gigabit per second (and a 640 Gigabit per second) ATM switch in a standard telecommunication environment. === In this thesis, we assume that the backplane is configured to support a traditional 3-stage crossbar switching system, with electrical switches in the first and third stages, and optical switches in the second stage. A discrete event simulation model is developed to analyze numerous architectural variations of this opto-electronic switching system. === Through simulations, we illustrate the tradeoffs between the complexity of the optical switches in the second stage and the performance of the system, measured in terms of the throughput, delay and loss rate. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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