Abstract-We demonstrate an optical packet switch (OPS) subsystem employing in-band labeling to allow for transparent routing of packets with multiple data formats and data bit rates. Packets employing in-band labels can be processed without the need to reconfigure the label processor and the switch when changing data format and bit-rate. The label processor is based on asynchronous optical signal processing in combination with a simple electronic combinatory network. This makes the label processor capable to process a large number of labels with low latency time ( 3 ns) without complicated and power-hungry high-speed packet clock recovery and serializer/deserializer circuits. Experimental results show error-free operation of 1 64 OPS subsystem for 160-Gb/s return-to-zero ON-OFF keying and 120-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero differential phase-shift keying multiwavelength packets. Index Terms-Fiber Bragg grating (FBG), label processor, optical packet switching, optical signal processing, optical switch

A M H Ditewig

F Gomez Agis

Gomez Agis

H De Waardt

H J S

Member, IEEE H J S Dorren

Member, IEEE N Calabretta

N Calabretta

O Raz

S Zhang

T Ditewig

W Wang

Zhang, S., ... F Dorren

CiteSeerX

 
Scalable Optical Packet Switches for Multiple Data
Formats and Data Rates Packets
Citation for published version (APA):
Calabretta, N., Wang, W., Ditewig, A. M. H., Raz, O., Gomez Agis, F., Zhang, S., ... Dorren, H. J. S. (2010).
Scalable Optical Packet Switches for Multiple Data Formats and Data Rates Packets. IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters, 22(7), 483-485. DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2010.2040993
DOI:
10.1109/LPT.2010.2040993
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IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, VOL. 22, NO. 7, APRIL 1, 2010 483
Scalable Optical Packet Switches for Multiple Data
Formats and Data Rates Packets
N. Calabretta, Member, IEEE, W. Wang, T. Ditewig, O. Raz, F. Gomez Agis, S. Zhang, H. de Waardt, and
H. J. S. Dorren, Member, IEEE
Abstract—We demonstrate an optical packet switch (OPS) sub-
system employing in-band labeling to allow for transparent routing
of packets with multiple data formats and data bit rates. Packets
employing in-band labels can be processed without the need to re-
configure the label processor and the switch when changing data
format and bit-rate. The label processor is based on asynchronous
optical signal processing in combination with a simple electronic
combinatory network. This makes the label processor capable to
process a large number of labels with low latency time ( 3 ns)
without complicated and power-hungry high-speed packet clock
recovery and serializer/deserializer circuits. Experimental results
show error-free operation of    OPS subsystem for 160-Gb/s
return-to-zero ON–OFF keying and 120-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero dif-
ferential phase-shift keying multiwavelength packets.
Index Terms—Fiber Bragg grating (FBG), label processor, op-
tical packet switching, optical signal processing, optical switch.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE exponential growth of the Internet data traffic willdemand high capacity optical networks. It might occur
that high-capacity optical links will carry optical packets at data
rates above 100 Gb/s using a variety of data formats such as
return-to-zero (RZ) data packets [1], multiwavelength optical
packets that might have highly spectral efficient modulation
formats, such as differential (quadrature) phase-shift keying
(D(Q)PSK) [2], orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing
(OFDM) [3], -quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) [4].
On the other hand, routing of packets by today’s electronic
circuit switching may have fundamental limits due to the speed
and the scalability of multirack electronic switching fabrics,
and the associated power consumption by optoelectronic con-
versions [5].
Switching of the optical packets transparently in the optical
domain eliminates power-hungry optoelectronic conversions
[6]–[10]. However, there are several issues to be addressed
for realizing such an optical packet switch (OPS) subsystem.
The OPS subsystem should be able to handle optical packets
with multiple data formats. This implies that both the label
processor, which determines the packet destination and controls
the switching fabric, as well as the optical switching fabric,
Manuscript received November 10, 2009; revised December 21, 2009; ac-
cepted January 07, 2010. First published February 02, 2010; current version
published March 10, 2010. This work was supported by the Netherlands Sci-
ence Foundation (NWO) and by the Technology Foundation (STW) through
the NRC Photonics and Vi programs.
The authors are with COBRA Research Institute, Eindhoven University of
Technology, Eindhoven, Den Dolech 2, 5600 MB, The Netherlands (e-mail:
n.calabretta@tue.nl).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LPT.2010.2040993
should operate independently of the data format and data rate
of the packets. The OPS subsystem should be scalable, which
means that the number of input–output ports is not limited by
switch architecture. For instance, a large switching
matrix based on Clos architecture [11] can be realized starting
from a switch. Essential in realizing a optical
switch is the implementation of a scalable label processor.
Moreover, the OPS subsystem should introduce little latency
for increasing the node throughput.
In this work, we demonstrate an OPS subsystem employing
in-band labeling to allow for transparent routing of multiwave-
length packets with multiple data formats and at different data
bit rates. The OPS subsystem employs a scalable, asynchronous,
and low latency label processor. The label processor can op-
erate for 160-Gb/s optical time-division multiplexing (OTDM)
RZ ON–OFF keying (OOK) and 120-Gb/s ( Gb/s) nonre-
turn-to-zero DPSK (NRZ-DPSK) multiwavelength packets, and
therefore, the label processor and the switch do not need to be
reconfigured when changing data format. We demonstrate for
the first time a transparent OPS for OOK and DPSK data
packets with low penalty.
II. IN-BAND LABELING TECHNIQUE
Generally, optical packets at high data rate can be gener-
ated in serial by using OTDM techniques, or in parallel by using
colored channels; each channel has bit rate . Both the
OTDM packets and channels can be encoded by many mod-
ulation formats. We encode the address information of optical
packets by in-band labels, i.e., the wavelengths of the labels
are chosen within the bandwidth of the payload. We have al-
ready validated this technique for 160-Gb/s OTDM packets; the
labels were inserted within the spectrum of the OTDM signal
[see Fig. 1(a)]. For the DPSK multiwavelength packets, we use
the same label wavelengths, but they are spectrally located in
the notches of the spectra of the multiwavelength payload [see
Fig. 1(b)] [9], [10]. Each label has a binary value and is OOK
encoded with a pulse duration equal to the payload. Thus,
addresses can be encoded by using wavelengths. This makes
this technique scalable within the limited payload bandwidth.
We demonstrate that by using the in-band labeling technique,
the all-optical label extractor (AOLE) and the combinatory net-
work do not need to be reconfigured to process any packets re-
gardless of the data payload formats.
III. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The experimental setup to demonstrate the OPS operation of
packets with multiple modulation format and in-band labels is
shown in Fig. 1. At the transmitter side, we generated payloads
with two types of modulation formats. First, 160-Gb/s OOK
payload centered at 1546 nm is generated by time-multiplexing
1041-1135/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE
484 IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, VOL. 22, NO. 7, APRIL 1, 2010
Fig. 1. Experimental setup. Packets with two types of modulation formats and six OOK labels are generated and processed by the packet switch. (a) 160-Gb/s
RZ-OOK packets with the six labels; (b) 120-Gb/s NRZ-DPSK with the six labels.
40-Gb/s modulated optical pulses. The 1.4-ps optical pulses
make the 20-dB bandwidth of the payload to be 5 nm. Second,
120-Gb/s NRZ-DPSK multiwavelength payload was emulated
by using two time 6 channels with wavelengths from 1544.1 to
1548 nm on a 50-GHz grid by using a 10-GHz phase modulator.
The data format transparent optical switches employed in the
experiment makes channel decorrelation redundant.
The optical address coupled to the payloads was generated by
encoding six labels with the same duration as the packet payload
and with wavelengths nm, nm,
nm, nm, nm, and
nm. Note that the labels are located within the op-
tical spectra of the two types of payload [see Fig. 1(a) and (b)].
The optical packets are fed into the OPS. The schematic of
the OPS is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of an AOLE
that separates the labels and payload. The separated payload is
broadcasted into the optical gates, while the extracted labels are
processed by the combinatory network, which provides the con-
trol signals for driving the optical gates. The AOLE separates
the labels and payload by using a cascade of six narrow-band-
width fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) centered at the labels wave-
lengths and optical circulators. The FBGs have a Gaussian pro-
file with 98% of reflectivity and 6 GHz at 3-dB bandwidth to
avoid significant slicing of the spectrum of the payload that may
lead to distortions. The labels output in parallel from the AOLE.
This avoids complicated packet-based clock-recovery and elec-
trical serial-to-parallel conversion. The labels are processed by
the combinatory network, which is an asynchronous electronic
analogue decoder. The output signals control the optical gates.
The combinatory network can process a large number of labels
without increasing the latency by using several chips in parallel.
Note that since the labels have the same duration as the payload,
the control signals generated by the combinatory network have
a duration equal to the payload. This makes flip-flops redun-
dant and allows for operation on packets with variable length.
The optical gates are based on electrooptic LiNbO switches
to guarantee transparent switching of the packets with multiple
data formats. The switched optical packets are then received and
analyzed by the BER tester.
IV. RESULTS
First, we investigate the compatibility of in-band labels with
payloads with multiple modulation formats. We fed into the
OPS packets with six in-band labels and data payload with dif-
ferent formats. We evaluate the quality of the payloads after fil-
tering the in-band labels. The optical spectra of the packets be-
fore and after the label extractor and the BER measurements
Fig. 2. Optical spectra of the packets before and after the label extractor and
BER curves for: (a) 160-Gb/s RZ-OOK; (b) 120-Gb/s NRZ-DPSK.
are shown in Fig. 2. For 160-Gb/s RZ-OOK, error-free opera-
tion with 0.6-dB power penalty was measured [see Fig. 2(a)].
Similarly, less than 0.4 dB of power penalty was measured for
the 120-Gb/s NRZ-DPSK format. Those results indicate that
in-band labeling can be used as optical address technique with
160-Gb/s RZ-OOK and 120-Gb/s NRZ-DPSK payload formats
without compromising the signal quality.
Next, we demonstrate the switching performance of a
OPS for 160-Gb/s RZ-OOK and 120-Gb/s NRZ-DPSK packets.
The experimental setup employed is the same reported in Fig. 1.
The packets have a duration of 6.4 ns and are separated by a 3-ns
guard time. The optical power of the input packets before the
OPS was 3 dBm. In the experiment, we investigated the behavior
of a switch by using only two optical gates and 18-dB
attenuator that accounts for the 1 by 64 splitting losses. Using
two optical gates is sufficient to evaluate the crosstalk between
the output ports as well as the switching dynamics.
CALABRETTA et al.: SCALABLE OPSs FOR MULTIPLE DATA FORMATS AND DATA RATES PACKETS 485
Fig. 3. Measured traces at different points of the OPS for 160-Gb/s RZ-OOK:
(a) input packets; (b) switching control; (c) switched packets. A magnification
of the traces with 5-ns/div timescale is also reported.
Fig. 4. Measured traces of the OPS for 120-Gb/s NRZ-DPSK: (a) input
packets; (b) switching control; (c) switched packets.
Figs. 3 and 4 show the time evolution of the optical packets
along the OPS for the 160-Gb/s RZ-OOK and 120-Gb/s
NRZ-DPSK data packets, respectively. The signal produced by
the combinatory network, which is used as a control signal of
the optical gates, is shown in Figs. 3(b) and 4(b). The electrical
voltage of the control signal generated by the combinatory
network was 4.5 V, which is sufficient to drive the optical
gate without additional amplifiers. The control opens one
optical gate, switching the packet to one of the 64 outputs.
The 160-Gb/s RZ-OOK switched packet and the 120-Gb/s
NRZ-DPSK switched packet at the output of the gate are
reported in Figs. 3(c) and 4(c), respectively. The measured
crosstalk between the output ports was higher than 18 dB. At
the receiver, the 160-Gb/s OOK was demultiplexed to 40 Gb/s
by an electroabsorption modulator [10]. The measured BER of
the switched packet for the 160-Gb/s RZ-OOK and 120-Gb/s
NRZ-DPSK are reported in Fig. 5(a) and (b), respectively.
Error-free operation was obtained with 1.6 dB of power penalty
compared to the back-to-back payload BER for the 160-Gb/s
RZ-OOK packets, and 0.9 dB of power penalty was measured
for the 120-Gb/s NRZ-DPSK packets.
V. CONCLUSION
We have demonstrated error-free operation with 1.6 and
0.9 dB of penalty of a OPS that transparently routes
with multiple data formats and data bit rates, namely 160-Gb/s
RZ-OOK and 120-Gb/s DPSK packets. Employing the in-band
labels technique, the packets can be processed without the need
to reconfigure the label processor and the switch when changing
data format and bit rate. We have shown that by using six labels,
addresses can be encoded without additional spectral
occupation. This makes the in-band labeling technique scalable
within the limited payload bandwidth. Moreover, parallel and
Fig. 5. BER measured at the OPS output. (a) 160-Gb/s RZ-OOK and eye di-
agrams. Time scale is 2 ps/div. (b)       Gb/s NRZ-DPSK of the output
packets and eye diagrams. Time scale is 100 ps/div.
asynchronous labels extraction by passive optical filters has
several advantages: the payload is kept in the optical domain,
no guard-time and precise synchronization between label and
payload is required. The parallel processing allows for using
a simple asynchronous electronic combinatory network to
generate on the fly the control signals of the gates with a latency
3 ns. This avoids the long latency due to the address acqui-
sition time and clocked serial-to-parallel conversion. Finally,
the low power penalty ( 0.6 dB) operation after six labels
extraction and the capability of the asynchronous electronic
combinatory network to operate with large number of labels
for driving optical gates (output ports), suggest that this
technique is scalable in terms of in-band labels and at least
eight labels can be attributed, scaling the OPS to 256 output
ports. For label swapping operation, new labels can be inserted
by using the technique presented in [12].
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