SOA-Based Label Extractor for Optical Burst Switching Application

This letter presents experimental results of a label extractor for labeled-optical burst switching (OBS) applications. The extractor uses a semiconductor optical amplifier in the amplifying detection mode to extract the label part of a burst with attached payload. More than 4-dB input power range is obtained with two burst sizes proving that the proposed solution is suitable for label detection in OBS nodes with asynchronous arrival of bursts. In addition, the solution brings an optical gain that is an interesting feature in such architectures.