A new wavelength-routed photonic packet buffer combining traveling delay lines with delay-line loops

We present a new wavelength-routed photonic packet buffer that combines tra veling delay lines with delay-line loops. The new packet buffer can effecti vely capitalize on the simplicity of traveling delay lines and the flexibil ity of delay-line loops. Three different packet buffering and scheduling te chniques are investigated. The effectiveness of the new packet buffer is ev aluated by computer simulation using a random traffic model. The simulation results show that the new packet buffer, in conjunction with the buffering and scheduling techniques, can efficiently make use of buffering spaces an d, hence, substantially reduce the packet-loss probability by several order s of magnitude.