The `staggering switch´: an `almost-all´ optical packet switch

The performance of an almost-all-optical packet switch is evaluated. The switch architecture is based on two rearrangeably nonblocking stages interconnected by optical delay lines with different amounts of delay. Thus, the switch design does not rely on recirculating loops for optical storage implementation. The probability of loss is investigated as a function of link utilization and the size of the switch for random and for bursty traffic. It is found that, in general, with proper setting of the number of delay lines, the switch can achieve arbitrarily low probability of loss