A Novel Fiber Delay Line Buffering Architecture for Optical Packet Switching

Authors

Lin Li, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Stephen Scott, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Jitender S. Deogun, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

2003

Comments

Published in IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference, 2003. GLOBECOM '03. Volume: 5. Copyright 2003 IEEE. Used by permission.

Abstract

Due to the lack of optical random access memory, optical fiber delay line (FDL) is currently the only way to implement optical buffering. Feed-forward and feedback are two kinds of FDL structures in optical buffering. Both have advantages and disadvantages. In this paper, we propose a more effective hybrid FDL architecture that combines the merits of both schemes. The core of this switch is the arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) and the tunable wavelength converter (TWC). It requires smaller optical device sizes and fewer wavelengths and has less noise than feedback architecture. At the same time, it can facilitate preemptive priority routing which feed-forward architecture cannot support. Our numerical results show that the new switch architecture significantly reduces packet loss probability.