A new photonic packet switch based on wavelength encoding of informati
on and on the broadcast-and-select principle for routing is presented.
A suitable management of a set of fiber delay Lines to allow all-opti
cal output queuing is performed through electronic control. Implementa
tion and traffic aspects are analyzed. Experimental results are given
to demonstrate the feasibility of the switch and its future evolution,
achieved by a rack-mounted subequipped demonstrator. Different design
options are discussed in order to achieve a global terabit per second
capacity. Performance is evaluated by simulation under the typical tr
affic conditions that arise in the broadband communication environment
. (C) 1998 Academic Press.