Packet-optical Add/Drop multiplexer technology: A pragmatic way to introduce optical packet switching in the next generation of metro networks
This paper describes a packet-optical add/drop multiplexer technology designed for Metro-ring networks to reduce cost and power consumption with a network efficiency comparable to a full-electronic Ethernet solution. A demonstrator including three nodes is shown.
Photonic integrated WDM cross-connects for optical metro and data center networks
We present a scalable and novel modular optical metro core node architecture and low cost metro access node architectures with edge computing functionalities employing photonic WDM integrated switches. Photonic integrated switches has been des igned as the building blocks to realize the modular metro node architectures, namely photonic WDM switches with express and add/drop ports, photonic integrated WSS aggregation/disaggregation functions for merging/dropping the network traffic, and photonic integrated multi-cast switch (MCS), as well as bandwidth variable transceivers aggregators to achieve multi-Terabits/second operation. Moreover, a dynamic re-configurable metro-access nodes based on low-cost 2-degree photonic integrated mini-ROADMs will be discussed. The lossless photonic WDM switches are based on InP technology and employ semiconductor optical amplifiers as on -chip gain element and fast switch. The photonic WDM circuits allows to switch multiple format data signals in wavelength, space, and time for full flexibility, scalability of the interconnected network elements as well as capacity. Applications to data center interconnects and 5G will be discussed and experimental results reported.
The quantum particle in a box: what we can learn from classical electrodynamics
The problem of a charged particle enclosed in an infinite square potential well is analysed from the point of view of classical theory with the addition of the electromagnetic zero-point radiation field, with the aim to explore the extent to which such an analysis can contribute to enhance our understanding of the quantum behavior. First a proper treatment is made of the freely moving particle subject to the action of the radiation field, involving a frequency cutoff ωc. The jittering motion and the effective structure of the particle are sustained by the permanent action of the zero-point field. As a result, the particle interacts resonantly with the traveling field modes of frequency ωc in its proper frame of reference, which superpose to give rise to a modulated wave accompanying the particle. This is identified with the de Broglie wave, validating the choice of Compton’s frequency for ωc. For the stationary states of particles confined in the potential well, the Lorentz force produced by the accompanying field is shown to lead to discrete values for the mean speed and to an uneven probability distribution that echoes the corresponding quantum distribution. The relevance of the results obtained and the limitations of the classical approach used, are discussed in the context of present-day stochastic electrodynamics.