Photonic packet switching using all-optical header processing and storage of header information

A novel all-optical packet switching concept with all-optical header processing and all-optical storage of the header information is presented. The header bits are processed by an optical threshold function, which acts as a flexible all-optical logic gate. The storage of the header is performed by an all-optical flip-flop based on coupled laser diodes. To demonstrate these concepts, a test bed is currently under construction in the Electro-optical communications group of Eindhoven University of Technology. We present the status of the project and experimental results