All-Optical Label Extractor/Eraser for In-Band Labels and 160-Gb/s Payload Based on Microring Resonators

Abstract

<para xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> Photonic integration of an all-optical packet switch (AOPS) is a crucial issue since it leads to a great reduction of volume, power consumption, and costs. Recently, a 1<formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$\, \times \,$</tex></formula>4 AOPS was successfully demonstrated by using an all-optical label extractor/eraser. The label extractor/eraser was implemented by means of fiber Bragg gratings and optical circulators that prevent the photonic integration of the AOPS. Here, we demonstrate a passive and asynchronous photonic integrated all-optical label extractor/eraser by using narrowband silicon–nitride add–drop ring-resonators. By exploiting the narrow bandwidth of the drop port and pass-through port error-free simultaneous separation/erasing of the in-band labels from the 160-Gb/s packet payload was demonstrated without noticeable pulse-shape distortions. </para>