Spatial and spectral super-channel optical packet switching system for multigranular SDM-WDM optical networks

Novel optical networking technologies are necessary to efficiently utilize the huge transmission capacity of spatial division multiplexing wavelength division multiplexing (SDM-WDM) optical networks. In this paper, we propose a joint spatial super-channel optical packet switching (OPS) scheme that increases the granularity of SDM-WDM optical networks. This joint switching concept simplifies the hardware of an OPS system. We experimentally investigate a 100 Gb∕s spatial-spectral super-channel OPS system and present the preliminary results of the demonstration showing error-free switching operation. Finally, we discuss the benefits of this scheme in terms of the number of devices and the influence of the propagation time deviation between multiple optical payloads of a spatial super-channel optical packet from the viewpoint of the bandwidth utilization efficiency on the system.