Abstract

In optical packet switching networks, payload signals remain in optical form from source to destination while header recognition for signal routing is performed electrically¹ or optically^2,3 at each node. The electrical header recognition method to process code-division encoded headers has a simple node structure but header speed is limited to less than 10 Gbit/s resulting in reduced network throughputs. On the other hand, optical method using nonlinear index change in a laser diode optical amplifier on a fiber loop mirror⁴ has a fast response time of about a picosecond to process bit-interval encoded headers. This scheme, however, requires a relatively complex node structure and a strong control pulse to induce nonlinearity. In this presentation, we propose a new type of optical packet header detector by using a fiber-optic delay-line matched filter, which can provide a fast header processing speed limited only by fiber bandwidth and a simple node structure due to a fewer number of components used. Experimental results on recognition of 10 Gb/s, 8-bit code-division encoded optical headers are also reported.

© 1995 IEEE