All-optical output shared buffer for wavelength-division-multiplexing photonic switching system

We propose and demonstrate a novel all-optical output shared buffer that can be used in wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) photonic switching system. It is mainly composed of an arrayed-waveguide-grating (AWG) and tunable wavelength converters. We have shown by analysis that if crosstalk of the AWG in the buffer is less than -33 dB, up to 8 WDM channels can be buffered simultaneously maintaining bit-error-rate (BER) of 10(-9) and also proved the operation of the buffer through experiment, Since the buffer handles multiple WDM channels at the same time, the buffer can effectively be applied to any WDM photonic switching system where minimum hardware for buffering is indispensable.