Architecture of ultrafast optical packet switching ring network

This paper describes the architecture and technical implementation issues of the ultra fast optical packet switching ring network. The technical features of the proposed network are the use of ultrafast optical packets generated by packet compression, ring topology, and out-of-band transmission of the packet control signals. Using present techniques, it is possible to construct a network that is capable of transporting ultrafast optical packets with low delay and guaranteed bandwidth to some packets. Network performance attributes such as scalability, packet delay, and required buffer size are calculated, and implementation issues for realizing optical packet transmission hardware are discussed. Attention is paid to the synchronization in bit/packet phase between packets traversing a ring fiber. A bit/packet phase synchronous system is successfully shown to offer 40 Gb/s, 4000 bit optical packet switching through the use of 2/spl times/2 high-speed electrooptic switches.