With the explosive growth of AIGC, the transmission and switching bandwidth and power consumption requirements have been unprecedentedly increased. As the core of information processing, the intelligent center requires high-bandwidth, low-power, and low-latency optical interconnection network technology, especially all-optical switching technology.
OCS (Optical Circuit Switch) all-optical switching technology can significantly reduce data transmission latency and data center power consumption, greatly shorten the data center upgrade cycle, and assist in innovating AI cluster computing network architecture. OCS technology is a kind of all-optical switching technology based on optical cross-connect principle (M inputs and N outputs can be arbitrarily switched). Its core function is to route and switch signals rapidly and flexibly at the optical layer, making server ports achieve direct optical interconnection without O-E-O conversion. Therefore, compared to traditional electrical switching, OCS has the advantages of low latency, low power consumption, and full transparency at data transmission, which can adapt to future rate upgrades, implement multiple-rate upgrades smoothly, and reduce operating costs. In addition, OCS can realize reconfigurability at the physical layer, adapt to different training tasks' requirements, and improve network reliability. The OCS technology solution is used in data centers, which consists of high-speed optical modules, ring-shaped devices or bidirectional WDM components to form a large-scale all-optical switching system with high efficiency, low cost, and high benefits. Currently, the commercial OCS technology schemes mainly include DirectLight DBS technology and MEMS technology schemes. Based on MEMS technology, small-scale OCS has been applied in data center optical switching networks.
However, with the expansion of AI cluster scale from thousand cards to ten thousand cards or larger, there is a higher requirement for OCS matrix size and reliability. But the DirectLight DBS technology is based on beam deflection control principle, which realizes dynamic optical path adjustment and exhibits excellent reliability and stability in large-scale port expansion. It has begun to be applied in large-scale AI cluster intelligent computing centers. Future prospects are broad.
Direct Light Steering (Direct Beam Steering) is a technology that uses piezoelectric ceramic to drive the light beam to change direction under electric voltage, represented by Polatis.
With the increasing use of dense wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and optical communication networks, signal exchange at each node is completed in the optical domain, thus requiring an optical switch. Since there are many fibers and wavelengths involved in these nodes, a large port matrix optical switch is needed. Therefore, the trend of optical switches is towards matrixization and miniaturization.
The company has achieved batch production of piezoelectric ceramics with rich product specifications and models that can be adapted to light path layouts and spatial requirements. To meet customers' customized integration needs, the company can customize packaging sizes, voltages, strokes, metal terminal parts, etc. to ensure mechanical stiffness and stability, guaranteeing the reliability and long-term operation of optical switches.
The company has achieved batch production of piezoelectric ceramics with rich product specifications and models that can be adapted to light path layouts and spatial requirements.
To meet customers' customized integration needs, the company can customize packaging sizes, voltages, strokes, metal terminal parts, etc. to ensure mechanical stiffness and stability, guaranteeing the reliability and long-term operation of optical switches.
Meanwhile, the company integrates piezoelectric elements for closed-loop control in response to specific customer requirements and application scenarios.
