All-optical label swapping of 160 Gb/s data packets employing optical processing of scalable in-band address labels

Scalability of packet switched cross-connects that utilize all-optical signal processing is a crucial issue that eventually determines the future role of photonic signal processing in optical networks. We present a 1times4 all-optical packet switch based on label swapping technique that utilizes a scalable and asynchronous label processor and label rewriter. The packet address information is encoded by in-band labels. With this we mean that the wavelengths of the labels are chosen within the bandwidth of the payload. We encode addresses by combining different labels. Thus, by using N in-band label wavelengths, 2^N possible addresses can be encoded, which makes this labelling technique highly scalable within a limited bandwidth. Experimental results showed error-free packet switching operation at 160 Gb/s, while the label erasing and new label insertion operation introduces only 0.5 dB of power penalty. Those results indicate a potential utilization of the presented technique in a multi-hops packet switched network.