OPERA: An optical packet experimental routing architecture with label swapping capability

This paper describes experimental and simulation results of the optical pac ket experimental routing architecture (OPERA) project. The OPERA network is based on a novel optical network interface router design that is optically regenerative and supports optical internet protocol related functions incl uding label swapping, packet routing and forwarding operations and waveleng th reuse. Routing is based on subcarrier multiplexed header addressing, pac ket-rate wavelength conversion, and arrayed waveguide router technology, Th e routers are cascadable and use a unique double stage wavelength converter that supports header regeneration/replacement and maintains the payload ex tinction ratio. This approach overcomes dispersion limitations normally enc ountered using double sideband subcarrier multiplexing across a network. A discrete time simulation of the physical transport in an 8-hop network is r eported. Multihop routing is experimentally demonstrated between two all-op tical nodes and three input-output (I-O) ports of a waveguide grating array router. Packet-rate subcarrier header processing and wavelength conversion between six wavelengths is shown,vith high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of recovered payload and headers at each hop.