Novel approach to all-optical packet routing
Ellis L. Barefoot, Michael Cada, Larry Hughes

Proceedings of SPIE Volume: 5445
Microwave and Optical Technology 2003
Editor(s): Jaromir Pistora, Kamil Postava, Miroslav Hrabovsky, Banmali S. Rawat

Publication Date: April 2004

Abstract

A novel approach is proposed to all-optically route packets/datagrams in a core optical network. An encapsulation scheme is designed in which network destination addresses are converted into Cartesian-like addresses specifying a device by its physical location. The scheme is termed Cartesian Optical Routing Environment (CORE) routing. CORE allows the all-optical routing of packets along a serial point-to-point path in a network. Routing decisions are made by bitwise comparing an incoming packet's CORE destination address to the physical address of the local router using simple optical logic that is currently achievable. The comparison has three possible results: destination greater than, less than or equal to the local address. Based on the results of the comparison, the packet is either all-optically switched along the serial point-to-point path, or passed to the electronic component of the local router for further processing. This novel protocol solution is based on earlier work that proposed Cartesian routing as an alternative to IP routing. The optical logic and circuitry required to perform the routing functions are also considered based on the work in reference 2. The proposed scheme is evaluated using network traffic information from the Candian high-speed optical research and education network, CA*net3.