This is read yesterday that after the "4.0" industrial editor surges of an idea. The book says, software is the industry of the future. Electronic industry has achieved a programmable via programmable logic devices, optoelectronic industry now seems to be far away from the goal of programmable. SDN is the available software control to the light equipment level, demand for introduced in optical device level software control are also beginning to emerge. The combination of software and optical device industry is the time to put on the agenda.

As far back as 2001, Dowslake Dr Yang was published in the journal Lightwave light "programmable processor speed up to dynamic WDM optical network system evolution". In the article, Dr Yang introduced Dowslake the light of a programmable processor board. This is a kind of plug drawing subsystem product, can be based on the Internet language implementation based on the control software, can realize the compensator, switches, and speech path, and other functions. Users can remotely control the boards, to get the card working condition.

According to Dr Yang, optical device still cannot leave the control of electronic technology, key is to realize the programmable microprocessor. Variable attenuator, tunable wavelength filter, laser, based on MEMS switch, attenuator, etc. 2001 or bubble last period of optical communication, ten years later, in the field of controllable optical device, actually a lackluster progress. As long as the optical device is still based on different material separation of products, to achieve completely the whole system of programmable, still is a hassle.

Editor trying to find out in recent years, the industry launched some programmable optical device products. Actually this kind of programmable more or reflected in light meter level, the most typical is Finisar WaveShaper series programmable processor. Research and development of the product for testing the application provides a series of optical filter and optical switching function, the material is used in liquid crystal on silicon LCoS. Finisar claim to achieve including center wavelength and bandwidth, programmable control of waveform and so on, play a tunable filter, dynamic gain equalizer, polarization and so on the function of the processor.

WaveShaper is programmable meter level, is not true of the programmable device level. SDN request the programmable on the level of equipment, cannot leave behind this light programmable device. Now is only in the aspect of ROADM, how can the future evolution, is worth paying close attention to.