A packet header recognition assigning the position of a signal in the time axis and its application to all-optical self-routing

We describe an all-optical circuit that recognizes by a packet the header [virtual channel identifier (VCI): 16 bits and virtual path identifier (VPI): 8 bits] extracted from a cell for self-routing. The circuit's operation is confirmed by an experiment in the recognition of four header bits, and an all-optical routing experiment is carried out with a sequence of four cells, which are composed of two header bits. The output from the header recognition circuit appears in a signal assigned In the time axis according to the header information. The signal controls the switch in the switching system. The proposed header recognition and self-routing circuits are successfully demonstrated by the experiments.