All-optical header recognizer for optical packet switched networks

The increase of the internet traffic leads to future §optical networks requiring tens of Tb/s of capacity. §Current electronic circuit switches are limited by§the scalability of the electronic switching fabrics,§power consumption and dissipation in the opto-§electronic conversion. All-optical packet switches §may solve the bottleneck between the required§capacity and the routing speed. All-optical header §processing systems (AOHPS) is a key function in§implementing the all-optical packet switch.§The book focuses on AOPHS solutions based on§nonlinear gain and index dynamics in semiconductor§optical amplifiers (SOA). One approach is based on§two-pulse correlation principles in SOAs combined§with a header pre-processor for recognizing a large§amount of packet headers. Another approach employs§the self-induced nonlinear polarization rotation in§SOAs. This has the advantage to reduce drastically§the optical powers of operation. A third AOHPS§employs a terahertz optical asymmetric§demultiplexers (TOADs), which has the advantage to§be made compact and thus allows the photonic§integration of the system. Finally a comparison§between the different techniques is reported.