Abstract

High-speed packet switches, which can handle wide-bitrate-range data streams in an integrated manner, are expected to play an important role in future broadband networks. Introduction of photonic technology to very high-speed packet switches has been proposed[1]-[6]. Among these high-speed packet switches using photonic technology, the packet switch, using VSTEP’s (Vertical to surface transmission electro-photonic devices) [7] [8] as optical buffer memories, is expected to achieve high switch performance in small size[5]. The VSTEP two-dimensional (2D) array can be used not only as memories but also header-driven routing fabrics[9]. This paper discusses a photonic packet switch using VSTEP 2D array as buffer memories and a header-driven routing fabric with priority control.

© 1991 Optical Society of America