All-optical packet header and payload separation based on two TOADs for optical packet switched networks

We present a novel all-optical header and payload separation technique that can be utilized in Un-Slotted optical packet switched networks. The technique uses two modified TOADs, one is for packet header extraction with differential modulation scheme and the other performs a simple XOR operation between the packet and its self-derived header to get the separated payload. The main virtue of this system is simple structure and low power consumption. Through numerical simulations, the operating characteristics of the scheme are illustrated. In addition, the system parameters are discussed and designed to optimize the performance of the proposed scheme.