Concept for an optical bus-type interconnection network.

A concept for parallel optoelectronic bus-type interconnections (many participants-many participants) is given. The choices between multimode and single-mode fan-ins in free-space optical systems are discussed. When one single space-invariant multiple beam-splitting system is used for fan-out and fan-in simultaneously, the energy requirements for communications scale with 2N (for N participants on each busline), which is compared with N(2) for space-variant systems. A simple demonstration experiment with a Dammann grating used as a multiple beam splitter is shown, and in a design example the theoretical performance is discussed.