Application of single flux quantum technology to a next-generation photonic packet switch core
✍ Scribed by S. Yorozu; H. Harai; Y. Kameda; H. Terai; Y. Hashimoto
- Book ID
- 103890079
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2004
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 317 KB
- Volume
- 412-414
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0921-4534
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✦ Synopsis
Internet traffic is still growing rapidly. Link capacity is easily increased by bundling optical fibers, but the packet switching capacity at a node is limited by the performance of a semiconductor switch facing problems of packaging density, operation speed, and power consumption. Photonic technology is therefore emerging from the link technology into the packet switch technology. A photonic packet switch can analyze the packet label optically and control optical switches, but packet scheduling must be done in the non-optical domain because photonic technology lacks arithmetic characteristics. Increases in the line speed and the number of ports will make this scheduling a bottleneck. Because single flux quantum (SFQ) circuits can operate at several tens of gigahertz, a speed comparable to optical link speed, they will be able to eliminate this bottleneck. To improve the performance of the nodes in the photonic network, we propose an SFQ-circuit-controlled optical packet switch core. Here we describe and discuss two photonic packet switch architectures using SFQ-circuit-controlled photonic switches.