Reconfigurable wavelength router with simplicity and cost-effectivity

An all-optical wavelength router, which is feasible in reality, is proposed whose main advantage is having no tunable components and converting multiple wavelengths simultaneously. The proposed design is very similar to a traditional wavelength router structure, but the difference is two fold. First it uses a fixed tuned wavelength converter. This converter converts any input wavelength to a fixed wavelength. Second it allows loop back of the light. With this allowance of loop back, we can achieve the ability of tunable wavelength conversion using a fixed tuned wavelength converter. In comparison with previously reported structures, our design has the advantage of simplicity and cost-effectivity. The all-optical router prototype is experimentally tested in a small 3 x 3 network with a STM-16 bit stream per channel. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.