In-band time-to-live signaling system for combined DPSK/SCM scheme in OLS

We propose and validate experimentally a time-to-live (TTL) signaling system for an optical label swapping scheme based on 10-Gb/s differential phase-shift-keying (DPSK) packets and with 100-Mb/s subcarrier multiplexing (SCM) label. The proposed scheme allows fast packet discarding by using a 3-GHz subcarrier tone. DPSK payload has only a 2.4-dB power penalty at 10/sup -9/ bit-error rate after superimposing the SCM and TTL labeling signal.