Design of Two-Dimensional Optimized Banyan Networks

A smart two-dimensional optical Banyan network is proposed. Polarization switching logic of light is applied for the design of this network. The main element for the connections of the network is an optical crossbar switch that is composed of a half-wave plate, a programmable polarization switch, and a couple of birefringent plates. By the proposed optical crossbar switches, all permutations of the link patterns required in the network are generated due to the optimized design of the switching logic. As a result, complicated routing control of ordinary Banyan networks is much reduced and a simple two-dimensional optical Banyan network with straight interconnections between successive stages of the networks can be realized.