IST-LASAGNE: towards all-optical label swapping employing optical logic gates and optical flip-flops

The Information Society Technologies-all-optical LAbel SwApping employing optical logic Gates in NEtwork nodes (IST-LASAGNE) project aims at designing and implementing the first, modular, scalable, and truly all-optical photonic router capable of operating at 40 Gb/s. The results of the first project year are presented in this paper, with emphasis on the implementation of network node functionalities employing optical logic gates and optical flip-flops, as well as the definition of the network architecture and migration scenarios.

I. Introduction

The huge growth of Internet traffic during the last years is forcing next-generation Internet protocol (IP) networks to increase their capacity, performance, and packet forwarding rates. Future IP-based all-optical networks will require technologies to enable packet routing at terabit per second bit rates, supporting new streamlined IP routing protocols such as multiprotocol label swapping (MPLS) [1]. Optical network node implementations reported so far perform label packet processing in the electrical domain using alternative modulation formats or subcarrier multiplexing at lower bit rates (for example, IST-Switching Technologies for Optically LAbeled Signals (STOLAS) [2] or IST-Light wave Architectures for the processing of Broadband ELectronic Signals (LABELS) [3] projects) through hybrid optoelectronic node architectures. However, in order to achieve high data-rate operation [4], packet-format transparency [5], and high transmission efficiency, all network node functionalities such as switching, routing, and forwarding must be carried out directly in the physical layer. Likewise, the node optical layer needs to implement the required “intelligence” to look up the routing table and forward the packets.