This project develops an innovative approach to all-optical TDM communications in multiprocessor systems. The proposed approach is an extension of a previously developed connection paradigm for reducing control latency in reconfigurable optical interconnection networks. Using the proposed approach, a connection is established during a set of tome slots along the path which are dependent on each other, so that no time-slot interchanging is required and simple switching devices can be used. As a result, the overall communication latency as well as the complexity of the network can be reduced. Thus, a near term impact of this research is on the design of high-performance, low-complexity optical interconnection networks suitable for multiprocessor systems. The research also has long-term impact on the advancement of technologies such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (WDM) as the emerging technologies for computer communications.
