Compact polarization-based all-optical interconnection systems with growth capability.

All-optical communication requires all-optical interconnections, thus leading to reliable, fast, and flexible modular communication means in future systems. Free-space approaches are advantageous since they fully use the two dimensions optics offer. A folded architecture based on a polarization code is proposed for dynamic optical interconnection. The suggested systems are compact and appropriate for both intracomputer and intercomputer communication. The modularity of the proposed architecture is presented, and a growth rule for the fully connected versions of the system is introduced. The proposed approach significantly reduces both the price of the interconnection systems and their complexity. Presented are 4 x 4 and 8 x 8 fully connected switches, a rearrangeable nonblocking 4 x 4 switch, and a crossbar architecture.