Enabling Technologies for Next-Generation Optical Packet-Switching Networks

The optical packet-switching network is considered to be one of the most promising solutions for end-to-end delivery of high-bitrate data, video, and voice signals across optical networks of the future. Optical label switching (OLS) technology incurs simpler extraction and processing of the labels so that the optical packets can be routed with low latency to the destinations. We have developed several key enabling technologies for integrated optical networks, including optical label generation, label swapping, optical buffering, clock recovery, and wavelength conversion. We have designed and experimentally demonstrated these enabling techniques that can provide efficient broadband services in future optical networks.