An enhanced OPS architecture with optical buffers

Optical Packet Switching (OPS) is a promising technology to enable next-generation high-speed IP networks. One of the main components in an OPS network is the optical switch architecture that provides the basic functionality of switching packets from input ports to the desired output ports while maintaining data in the optical domain. In asynchronous OPS networks, contention may arise when two or more packets need to be directed to the same output source leading to packet loss and thus lower switching performance. Optical buffering, which is implemented by fiber delay lines (FDLs), is one of the approaches used for resolving contention. In this paper, we focus on the design a new FDL-based switch architecture that resolves packet contention in asynchronous OPS networks and achieves the same performance as that of best known architectures but with a reduced hardware complexity. Our analysis shows that, the proposed architectures possess some interesting properties as compared to existing designs. For example, for the same packet loss level, the proposed architecture requires a number of switch ports less than that used in generic architecture.