A multichannel crossover switching network using interconnection channels of collimated lights is proposed and demonstrated. Diffraction losses of the switching network are theoretically estimated.

A virtualized optical network (VON) is proposed as a key to implementing increased agility and flexibility into the future Internet and applications by providing any-to-any connectivity with the appropriate optical bandwidth at the appropriate time. The VON is enabled by introducing optical transparentization and optical fine granular grooming based on optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.

The popularity of cloud computing services is driving the boom in building mega-datacenters. This trend is forcing significant increases in the required scale of the intra-datacenter network. To meet this requirement, this paper proposes a photonic network architecture based on a multi-layer hypercube topology. The proposed architecture uses the Cyclic-Frequency Arrayed Waveguide Grating (CF-AWG) device to realize a multi-layer hypercube and properly combines several multiplexing systems that include Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), Wave-Band Division Multiplexing (WBDM) and Space Division Multiplexing (SDM). An estimation of the achievable network scale reveals that the proposed architecture can achieve a Peta-bit to Exa-bit class, large scale hypercube network with existing technologies.

Triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, the authors have been studying a resilient network whose key element is a movable and deployable ICT resource unit. The resilient network needs a function of robust and immediate connection to a wide area network active outside the damaged area. This paper proposes an application of digital coherent technology for establishing optical interconnection between the movable ICT resource unit and existing network nodes through a photonic network, rapidly, easily and with the minimum in manual work. We develop a prototype of a 100Gbit/s digital coherent transponder which is installable to our movable and deployable ICT resource unit and experimentally confirm the robust and immediate connection by virtue of the plug and play function.