Integrated optical buffers for packet-switched networks

Routers form the backbone of the Internet, directing data to the right locations with huge throughput capacity of terabits/second) and very few errors (1 error allowed in 1012 bits). However, as the Internet continues to grow rapidly, so must the capacity of electronic routers, thereby also growing in footprint and power consumption. The energy bill alone has developers looking for an alternate solution. Today's routers can only operate with electrical signals although Internet data is transmitted optically. This requires the data to be converted from the optical domain to the electrical domain and back again. Optical routers have the potential of saving in power by omitting these conversions, but have been held back in part by the lack of a practical optical memory device.;This work presents the first integrated optical buffer for next generation optical packet-switched networks. Buffering is required in a router to move packets of data in order to avoid collisions between packets heading to the same destination at the same time. The device presented here uses an InP-based two-by-two switch with a silica waveguide delay to form a recirculating buffer. Packet storage was shown with 98% packet recovery for 5 circulations. Autonomous contention resolution was demonstrated with two buffered channels to show that the technology is a realistic solution for creating multiple element buffers on multiple router ports. This thesis proposes and demonstrates the first integrated optical random access memory, thereby making a great stride toward high capacity optical routers.