A novel design for an asynchronous optical packet switch

We present a novel design for an asynchronous optical packet switch. The architecture is GMPLS-compliant, DWDM-capable and fully scalable. The switch uses a novel in-line buffer design, based on parallel recirculating buffers. The buffers solve contention by statistical multiplexing, and can be configured to conserve packet order and prioritize traffic. The control system is based on a direct local lookup of the destination port and wavelength and traffic class using the packet label. Performance modeling indicates that the switch has excellent throughput with low latency and low packet los