Ultrafast photonic ATM switch with optical output buffers

An ultrafast photonic asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) (ULPHA) switch based on a time-division broadcast-and-select network with optical output buffers is presented. The ULPHA switch has an ultra-high throughput and excellent traffic characteristics, since it utilizes ultrashort optical pulses for cell signals and avoids cell contentions by novel optical output buffers. Feasibility studies show that an 80×80 ULPHA switch with 1-Gb/s input/output is possible by applying the present technology, and that more than 1 Tb/s is possible by making a three-stage network using such switches. As an experimental demonstration, 4-bit 40-Gb/s optical cells were generated and certain cells were selected at an output on a self-routing basis. With its high throughput and excellent traffic considerations, the ULPHA switch is a strong candidate for a future large-capacity optical switching node