Ultrafast nonlinear interferometer (UNI)-based digital optical circuits and their use in packet switching

Digital optical logic circuits capable of performing bit-wise signal processing are critical building blocks for the realization of future high-speed packet-switched networks. In this paper, we present recent advances in all-optical processing circuits and examine the potential of their integration into a system environment. On this concept, we demonstrate serial all-optical Boolean AND/XOR logic at 20 Gb/s and a novel all-optical packet clock recovery circuit, with low capturing time, suitable for burst-mode traffic. The circuits use the semiconductor-based ultrafast nonlinear interferometer (UNI) as the nonlinear switching element. We also present the integration of these circuits in a more complex unit that performs header and payload separation from short synchronous data packets at 10 Gb/s. Finally, we discuss a method to realize a novel packet scheduling switch architecture, which guarantees lossless communication for specific traffic burstiness constraints, using these logic units.     

160 Gb/s variable length packet/10 Gb/s-label all-optical label switching with wavelength conversion and unicast/multicast operation

We report on the first demonstration of all-optical label switching (AOLS) with 160 Gb/s variable length packets and 10 Gb/s optical labels. This result demonstrates the transparency of AOLS techniques from previously demonstrated 2.5 Gb/s to this 160 Gb/s demonstration using a common routing and packet lookup framework. Packet forwarding/conversion, optical label erasure/re-write and signal regeneration at 160 Gb/s is achieved using a WDM Raman enhanced all-optical fiber cross-phase modulation wavelength converter. It is also experimentally shown that this technique enables packet unicast and multicast operation at 160 Gb/s. The packet bit-error-rate is measured for all optical label switched 16 /spl times/ 10 Gb/s channels and error free operation is demonstrated after both label swapping and packet forwarding.     

Optical signal processing for optical packet switching networks

Optical packet switching promises to bring the flexibility and efficiency of the Internet to transparent optical networking with bit rates extending beyond that currently available with electronic router technologies. New optical signal processing techniques have been demonstrated that enable routing at bit rates from 10 Gb/s to beyond 40 Gb/s. We review these signal processing techniques and how all-optical-wavelength converter technology can be used to implement packet switching functions. Specific approaches that utilize-ultra-fast all-optical nonlinear fiber wavelength converters and monolithically integrated optical wavelength converters are discussed and research results presented.     

Large-scale WDM star-based photonic ATM switches

This paper describes the large-scale photonic asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching systems being developed in NTT Laboratories. It uses wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) techniques to attack 1 TB/s throughput. The architecture is a simple star with modular structure and effectively combines optical WDM techniques and electrical control circuits. Recent achievements in important key technologies leading to the realization of large-scale photonic ATM switches based on the architecture are described. We show that we can obtain a 320 Gb/s system that can tolerate the polarization and wavelength dependencies of optical devices. Our experiments using rack-mounted prototypes demonstrate the feasibility of our architecture. The experiments showed stable system operation and high-speed WDM switching capability up to the total optical bandwidth of 12.8 nm, as well as successful 10 Gb/s 4×4 broadcast-and-select and 2.5 Gb/s 16×16 wavelength-routing switch operations     

Breakthrough technologies for the high-performance electrical ATMswitching system

A high-performance electrical asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching system is described with the goal of Tb/s ATM switching. The first step system was to use advanced Si-bipolar very large scale integrated (VLSI) technologies and the multichip technique. 1.0 μm bipolar SST technologies and Cu-polyimide multilayer MCM realized a 160 Gb/s throughput ATM system. The performance limitations of the 160 Gb/s system were power supply/cooling and module interconnection. The new ATM switching system, named OPTIMA-1, adopted optical interconnection/distribution to overcome the limitations and achieve 640 Gb/s. The system uses high-performance complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) devices and optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) interconnection. Combining OPTIMA-1 with optical cell-by-cell routing functions, i.e., photonic packet routing, can realize variable bandwidth links for 5 Tb/s ATM systems. This paper first reviews high-performance electrical ATM (packet) switching system architecture and hardware technologies. In addition, system limitations are described. Next, the important breakthrough technology of optical WDM interconnection is highlighted. These technologies are adopted to form OPTIMA-1, a prototype of which is demonstrated. The key technologies of the system are advanced 80 Gb/s CMOS/MCM, electrical technologies, and 10 Gb/s, 8 WDM, 8×8 optical interconnection. Details of implementation technologies are also described. Optical cell-by-cell (packet-by-packet) routing is now being studied. From the architectural viewpoint, dynamic link bandwidth sharing will be adopted. In addition, an AWG that performs cell-by-cell routing and a distributed large scale ATM system are realized. Optical routing achieves the 5 Tb/s needed in future B-ISDN ATM backbone systems     

All-optical packet compression of variable length packets from 40 to 1500 B using a gated fiber loop

A scalable loop-based packet compression scheme capable of handling variable length Internet protocol packets, from 40 to 1500 B, is proposed and demonstrated. The technique uses per packet variable compression ratio to achieve fixed compressed output packet size independent of input packet size. This technique allows variable length packets to be stored in fixed delay optical buffers and has application to optical packet switching, optical multiplexing, and optical grooming. These results demonstrate the largest packet size compressed to date. Error-free compression and verification of 1500-B packets compression from 2.5 to 10 Gb/s is demonstrated with a measured power penalty of /spl sim/2.2 dB.     

Optical signal routing using emission packet positioning of semiconductor heterostructure

We present a novel optical switching technique utilizing emission packet positioning of semiconductor heterostructure. A modulation-doped p-AlGaAs-GaAs heterostructure is employed to control spontaneous emission packet positioning with electric fields. Emission packets generated by optical input signals are brought over 150 /spl mu/m with electric fields, so the output fibers can detect the emission intensity as signals. The first-order analysis indicates that the drift velocity of minority electrons in GaAs limits the detectable maximum data rate and nanoseconds timescale signal routing operation at 20 Gb/s is possible at an electron drift velocity of 2/spl times/10/sup 7/ cm/s.     

Novel broad-band bit-synchronization circuit module for optical interconnections

A novel broad-band and ultrafast bit-synchronization circuit module is proposed and fabricated for optical interconnections. In optical packet switch fabric or optical interconnection between electric circuit boards, instantaneous bit synchronization is crucial to properly retime incoming packets with a random phase and reduce the number of preamble overhead bits. The developed bit-synchronization circuit module has a new clock selection circuit, which is configured with a phase comparator and an amplitude comparator. Since device-dependent delay circuits, such as buffer amplifiers or RC phasors, are not adopted, the newly developed clock selection circuit can operate under broad-band frequencies. The bit-synchronization circuit module was fabricated with a Si-bipolar gate array and it can operate at broad-band bit rates of up to 10.5 Gb/s. It also exhibits a power sensitivity penalty as low as 3 dB for 10-Gb/s input signals. The synchronization acquisition time of less than 9 b over the entire 360/spl deg/ phase range was confirmed by experiment.     

Photonic time-slot and wavelength-grid interchange for 10-Gb/spacket switching

A time-space-wavelength-division photonic packet switch is proposed. The switch is based on ultrafast simultaneous time-slot and wavelength-grid interchange of optical packets using data-signal-induced supercontinuum (SC) light and arrayed waveguide gratings to slice the SC light spectrum. The switch was demonstrated at a data rate of 10 Gb/s     

Routing of 100 Gb/s words in a packet-switched optical networkingdemonstration (POND) node

This paper presents the design and experimental results of an optical packet-switching testbed capable of performing message routing with single wavelength time division multiplexed (TDM) packet bit rates as high as 100 Gb/s. The physical topology of the packet-switched optical networking demonstration (POND) node is based on an eight-node ShuffleNet architecture. The key enabling technologies required to implement the node such as ultrafast packet generation, high-speed packet demultiplexing, and efficient packet routing schemes are described in detail. The routing approach taken is a hybrid implementation in which the packet data is maintained purely in the optical domain from source to destination whereas control information is read from the packet header at each node and converted to the electrical domain for an efficient means of implementing routing control. The technologies developed for the interconnection network presented in this paper can be applied to larger metropolitan and wide area networks as well     

A photonic front-end processor in a WDM ATM multicast switch

Dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technology has provided tremendous transmission capacity in optical fiber communications. However, switching and routing capacity is still far behind transmission capacity. This is because most of today's packet switches and routers are implemented using electronic technologies. Optical packet switches are the potential candidate to boost switching capacity to be comparable with transmission capacity. In this paper, we present a photonic asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) front-end processor that has been implemented and is to be used in an optically transparent WDM ATM multicast (3M) switch. We have successfully demonstrate the front-end processor in two different experiments. One performs cell delineation based on ITU standards and overwrites VCI/VPI optically at 2.5 Gb/s. The other performs cell synchronization, where cells from different input ports running at 2.5 Gb/s are phase-aligned in the optical domain before they are routed in the switch fabric. The resolution of alignment is achieved to the extent of 100 ps (or 1/4 bit). An integrated 1×2 Y-junction semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) switch has been developed to facilitate the cell synchronizer     

Monolithically integrated 40-gb/s switchable wavelength converter

An all-optical switchable wavelength-converting module at 40 Gb/s line rate is demonstrated in a fully integrated InP chip. The device combines a semiconductor optical amplifier-based wavelength converter and a fast-tunable multifrequency laser. Sub-nanosecond switching among the eight channels of the integrated laser is shown, and error-free operation of the wavelength conversion process at 40 Gb/s for each wavelength is demonstrated. The applications of fast switching wavelength conversion for optical switching and packet routing are discussed.     

100 Gb/s optical time-division multiplexed networks

We present ultrafast slotted optical time-division multiplexed networks as a viable means of implementing a highly capable next-generation all-optical packet-switched network. Such a network is capable of providing simple network management, the ability to support variable quality-of-service, self-routing of packets, scalability in the number of users, and the use of digital regeneration, buffering, and encryption. We review all-optical switch and Boolean logic gate implementations using an ultrafast nonlinear interferometers (UNIs) that are capable of stable, pattern-independent operation at speeds in excess of 100 Gb/s. We expand the capability provided by the UNI beyond switching and logic demonstrations to include system-level functions such as packet synchronization, address comparison, and rate conversion. We use these advanced all-optical signal processing capabilities to demonstrate a slotted OTDM multiaccess network testbed operating at 112.5 Gb/s line rates with inherent scalability in the number of users and system line rates. We also report on long-haul propagation of short optical pulses in fiber and all-optical 3R regeneration as a viable cost-effective means of extending the long-haul distance of our OTDM network to distances much greater than 100 km.     

Semiconductor laser diode optical amplifiers/gates in photonicpacket switching

In this paper, we will describe how semiconductor laser diode optical amplifiers/gates can be used in the photonic packet switching systems based on wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) techniques. First, we show that cross-gain modulation (XGM) can be suppressed when the device is used in the transparent condition of the waveguide material even when the input signal power exceeds +18 dBm. We then discuss an appropriate encoding for the optical signal. Experimental results show that high bit rate Manchester-encoding enables the use of semiconductor laser diode optical amplifiers/gates in the gain condition as well as the transparent condition. Finally, a new photonic packet receiver which utilizes a semiconductor laser diode optical amplifier as a packet power equalizer is proposed. This receiver accepts 17 dB power fluctuation at nanosecond speed for 10 Gb/s Manchester-encoded signal     

Ultra-high-bit-rate networking: from the transcontinental backboneto the desktop

The advances in photonic device technologies are bringing ultra-high-bit-rate networking-at speeds towards 100 Gb/s and beyond-much closer to practical reality. It is increasingly likely that in the longer term ultrafast optical time-division techniques-together with wavelength multiplexing-will be used in networks at all levels, from the transcontinental backbone to the desktop. Examples of devices include a subpicosecond clock source packaged inside a laptop personal computer and an OTDM switch on a single semiconductor chip, both produced at HHI. Advances similar to these make it possible now to envisage the use of OTDM techniques, not just in the highest layers of national and international networks, but also much closer to the user-such as the world-first demonstrations at BT Laboratories of a 40 Gb/s TDMA LAN and a 100 Gb/s packet self-routing switch for multiprocessor interconnection. Ultrafast networks might even provide the interconnection backplane inside future desktop routers and servers with massive throughput     

Experimental demonstration of fast simultaneous wavelength switching and time demultiplexing using a nonlinear optical loop mirror

Simultaneous all-optical high-speed wavelength switching and time demultiplexing is experimentally demonstrated using a nonlinear optical loop mirror, an integrated passive wavelength router, and fast optical space switches. With >1.2-GHz wavelength switching speeds and 2.5 Gb/s time demultiplexing speeds, both packet switching and isolated-bit extraction are demonstrated. The time switching can potentially be applied to data rates >100 Gb/s.     

Dynamic range and switching speed limitations of an N×Noptical packet switch based on low-gain semiconductor optical amplifiers

Two important system performance limitations-dynamic range and switching speed-of an integrated packet switch fabric based on low-gain semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA's) have been examined by using cascaded blocks of an SOA model, which includes transient effect, nonlinear pulse distortion effect, and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise. Low-gain SOA's were used to minimize ASE noise considering that no optical filters can be integrated in an SOA-based switch fabric. The system performance with and without a narrowband optical filter at the receiver were both studied. By assuming fixed-wavelength transmitters and no optical filter can be used at the receiving end owing to the unpredictability of arriving packet wavelengths, our simulation results indicate that the dynamic ranges of 4×4 and 8×8 SOA-based packet switches at 2.5 Gb/s can only be about 3.2 and 0.8 dB, respectively. However, at 155 Mb/s, even without a receiving-end optical filter, the dynamic range of each switch size can be increased by more than 17 dB as compared to the cases of 2.5 Gb/s. Note that the dynamic ranges were estimated under the conditions of a bit error rate (BER) ⩽10^-9 and a pulse distortion ratio ⩽30%. We have also shown that, when an optical filter with a 1 nm bandwidth was used at the receiving end to simulate (1) a circuit-switched condition where the center wavelength of the filter can be adjusted according to the established circuit, or (2) a packet-switched condition where each receiver has a wavelength demultiplexer and a detector array, the dynamic range of 4×4 and 8×8 switches can be increased to 16.3 and 14 dB, respectively, at 2.5 Gb/s     

Packet-format and network-traffic transparent optical signal processing

In this paper, we demonstrate optical transparency in packet formatting and network traffic offered by all-optical switching devices. Exploiting the bitwise processing capabilities of these "optical transistors," simple optical circuits are designed verifying the independency to packet length, synchronization and packet-to-packet power fluctuations. Devices with these attributes are key elements for achieving network flexibility, fine granularity and efficient bandwidth-on-demand use. To this end, a header/payload separation circuit operating with IP-like packets, a clock and data recovery circuit handling asynchronous packets and a burst-mode receiver for bursty traffic are presented. These network subsystems can find application in future high capacity data-centric photonic packet switched networks.     

Label Stacking in Photonic Packet-Switched Networks With Spectral Amplitude Code Labels

Label stacking is used for hierarchical addressing to reduce the size of lookup tables and to increase the speed of the routing process. We propose an optical label stacking using spectral-amplitude codes (SAC) as labels to accomplish ultrafast packet forwarding. We discuss the advantages of this label architecture compared to other proposals in the literature and present experimental results. We experimentally examine two types of optical packets, one with separable SAC labels and the other one with SAC-encoded payloads. In the first case, the SAC label is a collection of spectral tones modulated at the packet rate (low rate), and the payload is on a separate wavelength modulated at the data rate (fast rate). In the second case, the payload data modulates the collection of wavelengths that constitute the code. We implement a network with two forwarding nodes, and we transmit the packets with two labels in the label stack over 80 km of fiber and measure the bit error rate (BER) after two hops. We achieve error-free transmission (BER<10 ^-9) for the packets with SAC labels and SAC-encoded payload at payload bit rates of 10 and 2.5 Gb/s, respectively. This is the first experimental demonstration of optical label stacking to our knowledge