Photonic packet switches: architectures and experimentalimplementations |
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Authors: | Blumenthal D.J. Prucnal P.R. Sauer J.R. |
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Affiliation: | Microelectron. Res. Center, Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA; |
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Abstract: | Photonic packet switches offer high speed, data rate and format transparency, and flexibility required by future computer communications and cell-based telecommunications networks. In this paper, we review experimental progress in state-of-the-art photonic packet switches with an emphasis on all-optical guided-wave systems. The term all-optical implies that the data portion of a packet remains in optical format from the source to the destination. While the data remain all-optical, both optical and optoelectronic techniques have been used to process packet routing functions based on extremely simple routing protocols. An overview of the design issues for all-optical photonic packet switching is given and contrasted with electronic packet switch implementations. Low-level functions that have been experimentally implemented include routing, contention resolution, synchronization, and header regeneration. System level demonstrations, including centralized photonic switching and distributed all-optical multihop networks, will be reviewed |
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