All-optical multi-wavelength virtual memory based switching node

The all-optical switching node implementations are limited by the lack of optical memory. We present an optical switching node based on all-optical buffering. We propose the organization of the all-optical switching node in four blocks: input block, control block, buffering block and switching block. The virtual memory based on the two loops architecture implements the multi-wavelength concepts to realize a shared buffer with important storage capacity. The memory implementation is demonstrated using optical components. The control parts are designed to resolve the contention problem at the switching block. A set of simulations is done to prove that the proposed shared memory is able to confine several signals for a relatively long time as a memory and signals can leave the architecture for a relatively short delay after the departure decision is taken. The low penalty observed shows that the system reliability is good.