Ultra-fast all-optical packet switching (EET.5820)

In the near future the capacity of commercial telecommunication links will exceed one terabit per second. Optical fiber communications technology is the key technology that facilitates such large amounts of data. The telecommunication nodes however still operate at lower speed electronics and are becoming bottlenecks in the overall transport of information. All-optical signal processing can be used to develop ultrafast all-optical telecommunication nodes. The availability of this technology will facilitate the capacity upgrade of the entire telecommunications transport network, including the fiber networks, the nodes, wireless telecommunications and the Internet.

In packet switched systems, the data is transported in so called "data-packets" that contain a packet header with the address information and a packet payload with the information. The realisation of technology that allows ultrafast all-optical processing of the packet header and ultrafast routing of the packet payload are the main challenges of this project. In particular, we will focus on the realisation of optical header recognisers, optical memories and ultrafast optical switches. All the realized technology should allow integration in III-V material system to allow photonic integration.