All-optical WDM packet networks

This paper describes the components and subsystems for the implementation of a multi-GHz optoelectronic data transport network using self-routing packets in a multi-hop network. The short packet payloads are compressed using optical wavelength division multiplexing techniques, and remain optical from source to destination while traversing the switching nodes. The routing is done with a lean, self-routing hot potato protocol in order to avoid the need for data storage at the switching nodes and to provide a fixed node latency equivalent to a few meters of fiber. Sustainable throughput both into and out of the electronic host at each node should exceed 10 Gb/s. Some technical details of the switching nodes and interfaces of the recirculating shuffle network, and the stepped wavelength laser arrays and testbed will be given.