OPTICAL PACKET SELECTOR AND OPTICAL PACKET SWITCH

摘要

PURPOSE:To attain large capacity and high speed of an optical packet switch by applying optical signal processing to a major function of the packet switch through the use of an ultrashort optical pulse. CONSTITUTION:High speed packet data and an optical address signal generated by an optical packet compressor 10 are subject to time division multiplex by an optical multiplexer 11 and the result is inputted to an optical synthesis branching device 13, where wavelength multiplexing is executed and the data are distributed into mn-lines of outputs and inputted to an optical packet selector 14. Then optical packet signals subject to wavelength multiplexing and time division are selected altogether for buffering and the result is inputted to an optical packet expander 15, in which an optical packet signal whose time length is Lt is converted into an electric packet signal whose time length is T. High speed processing is executed by using an ultrashort optical pulse having a very small pulse width in this way to increase the degree of time division multiplex and wavelength multiplexing is applied further thereby realizing a large capacity optical packet of Tbit/s.