A Review on All-Optical Switching in Intersatellite Laser Communication

As intersatellite laser communication progresses from its early in-orbit experiments to a fully operational network, the node access scheme is becoming increasingly intricate. The electrophotonic conversion intrinsic to existing satellite communication switching technologies presents an important obstacle to both communication capacity and switching speed, making it challenging to meet the communication needs of future large-scale satellite constellations. All-optical switching offers the advantages of low latency, high capacity, and high flexibility and is becoming a promising development in this field. This paper examines the application scenarios of several mature switching modes (optical circuit switches, optical burst switches, and optical packet switches) based on an analysis of the current situation of satellite laser communication networks. Furthermore, it introduces the working principles, research status, and scenario analysis of the core components of all-optical switching. It also presents a top-to-down design idea that can be used in the design of an onboard all-optical switching system.