SELF-ROUTING OF WAVELENGTH PACKETS USING AN ALL-OPTICAL WAVELENGTH SHIFTER AND QPSK SUBCARRIER ROUTING CONTROL HEADERS

We demonstrate a novel wavelength-router that directs self-routing opt ical packets, containing microwave subcarrier-multiplexed control info rmation, from an input wavelength-path to one of four destination wave length-paths. The router incorporates 1) an all-optical wavelength shi fter, based on cross-gain compression of a semiconductor optical ampli fier, and 2) a low-speed electronic control-header processor, Each pac ket is comprised of concurrently transmitted 1-Gb/s NRZ baseband paylo ad data and a 50-Mb/s control header, QPSK-encoded onto a 1.5-GHz subc arrier. We show 10(-9) BER results of packets routed to each of the fo ur wavelength-paths. The maximum wavelength shift is 23 nm, and the in ter-packet guard time is 20 ns.