All-optical decrementing of a packet's time-to-live (TTL) field and subsequent dropping of a zero-TTL packet

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology Vol. 21; no. 11; pp. 2746 - 2752
• Main Authors: McGeehan, J.E., Kumar, S., Gurkan, D., Nezam, S.M.R.M., Willner, A.E., Parameswaran, K.R., Fejer, M.M., Bannister, J., Touch, J.D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.11.2003; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Bit error rate; Communication switching; Guards; Laboratories; Modules; Networks; Noise levels; Optical fiber communication; Optical fiber networks; Optical packet switching; Optical pulses; Optical switches; Optical switching; Packet switching; Routing; Transistor logic
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2003.819131

We demonstrate an optical time-to-live (TTL) decrementing module for optical packet-switched networks. Our module acts on a standard NRZ-modulated binary TTL field within a 10 Gb/s packet and decrements it by one if the TTL is nonzero. If the TTL of the incoming packet is zero, the module signals an optical switch to drop the packet. Our technique is independent of the TTL length, does not require the use of ultrashort RZ optical pulses, requires no guard time between the end of the TTL field and the packet data, and has only a 2.4 dB power penalty at 10/sup -9/ bit-error rate.