ARTEMIS: 40-gb/s all-optical self-routing node and network architecture employing asynchronous bit and packet-level optical signal processing

Abstract

A 40-Gb/s asynchronous self-routing network and node architecture that exploits bit and packet level optical signal processing to perform synchronization, forwarding, and switching in the optical domain is presented. Optical packets are self-routed on a hop-by-hop basis through the network by using stacked optical tags, each representing a specific optical node. Each tag contains necessary control signals for configuring the node-switching matrix and forwarding each packet to the appropriate outgoing link and onto the next hop. In order to investigate the feasibility of their approach physical-layer simulations are performed, modeling each optical subsystem of the node showing acceptable signal quality and end-to-end bit error rates. In the All-optical self-RouTer EMploying bIt and packet-level procesSing (ARTEMIS) control plane, a timed/delayed resource reservation-based signaling scheme is employed combined with a load-balancing feedback-based contention-avoidance mechanism that can guarantee a high performance in terms of blocking probability and end-to-end delay