Integration and components for an all-optical access node.

Abstract

In high-speed communications network, optical switches and optical logic gates offer the potential for high speed processing without the need for electronic to optical and optical to electronic conversions. Toward this goal of all-optical processing several different methods have been proposed and demonstrated, including the use of optical fibers, planar waveguides, and semiconductors. This work mainly deals with those devices making use of optical fiber to demonstrate switches and logic gates. In particular, the two basic configurations are the soliton dragging logic gate and the nonlinear optical loop mirror. The focus of this work is the study of the all-optical access node with concentration on the all-optical header processor built from the optical logic gates. This includes the performance for each of the components, including synchronized lasers, optical logic gates, header processor with encoded words, router, and demultiplexer. Integration issues for all the components and the performance of the access node as a single unit are discussed as well as some preliminary results for potential system performance of the header processor.