Contention Resolution for Burst-Mode Traffic Using Integrated SOA-MZI Gate Arrays and Self-Resetting Optical Flip-Flops

We demonstrate a photonic routing system that resolves the contention between bursty optical packets. The circuit is realized exclusively with integrated photonic components through the interconnection of semiconductor optical amplifier Mach-Zehnder interferometers gate arrays and optical flip-flops. The system resolves the contention - without burst segmentation - in the wavelength domain with a low power penalty ( < 1 dB).