All-optical address recognition for optically-assisted routing in next-generation optical networks

Optical fiber communication technology enabled high-speed, long-distance capacity in today's networks. The packet switching functions such as address recognition and routing are performed in the electrical domain after optical-to-electrical conversion. As more real-time applications come online, demand for bandwidth increases, and electronic processing may potentially become a bottleneck at the intermediate nodes along the network. We introduce some optical address recognition schemes for optically-assisted routing that may decrease the processing delay at these nodes.