Dual-loop optical buffer (DLOB) based on a 3 /spl times/ 3 collinear fiber coupler

Optical buffers are critical for optical signal processing in future optical packet-switched networks. In this letter, we present a dual-loop optical buffer (DLOB) that is based on a 3 /spl times/ 3 collinear fiber coupler. A DLOB has compact structure and needs low control power for switch operation. There is only one switch in the buffer for both "write" and "erase" operation. The experiment results of storage of optical packets at 100 Mb/s is presented first and then its capacity is extended further to higher data rates of 2.5 Gb/s. Storage has been observed for more than 32 circulations in both cases.