Optical Burst Switching Router With 40-,10-Gb/s Bit-Rate Transparent Contention Resolution

We report a bit-rate transparent optical burst switching (OBS) router prototype using a fast 5 $\times$ 5 PLZT [(Pb,La)(Zr,Ti)O$_3$] optical matrix switch. Dynamic switching in a two-wavelength, 2 $\times$ 2 OBS switch is demonstrated. Contention resolution using a tunable Mach–Zehnder interferometer wavelength converter for both 40- and 10-Gb/s bursts is demonstrated for the first time. Error-free operation was achieved for both bit rates under the same settings, as required in autonomous networks.