Development of Gigabit Ethernet Optical Switched Access Network System Using Optical Packet Switches

Abstract

We have already proposed a Gigabit Ethernet-Optical Switched Access Network (GE-OSAN) architecture that realizes longer transmission distances and achieves higher security than the conventional Passive Optical Network (PON). To confirm the technical feasibility of the architecture, we introduce here a GE-OSAN prototype system for down-stream transmission. We present the Optical Switching Module (OSM), which uses (Pb,La)(Zr,Ti)O3 (PLZT) optical packet switches, and show that it realizes switching within 10ns of the designed position in the Inter-Frame Gap (IFG). We also introduce an Optical Network Unit (ONU) with optical burst receiver that uses off-the-shelf commercial devices to reduce its cost; two types of an optical to electrical signal (O/E) converter are implemented for performance comparison. After testing both of them, we select the one that satisfies our acquisition time requirement of 64ns.