Demonstration of 10 Gbit Ethernet/Optical-Packet Converter for IP Over Optical Packet Switching Network

We developed novel network interfaces, for example 10 Gbit Ethernet to 80 Gbit/s optical-packet (10 GbitE-80 GbitOP) or 80 Gbit/s optical-packet to 10 Gbit Ethernet (80 GbitOP-10 GbitE) converters (collectively called as 10 GbitE/80 GbitOP converters), to connect optical packet switching (OPS) networks with IP technology-based networks. By using newly developed arrayed burst-mode optical packet transmitters/receivers together, the 10 GbitE-80 GbitOP converter at the ingress edge node of the OPS network encapsulates an IP packet into an 80(8lambda×10) Gbit/s dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM)-based optical packets and generates an optical label based on a lookup table and the destination addresses of the IP packet. The 80 GbitOP-10 GbitE converter at the egress edge node decapsulates the IP packet from the optical packet and generates a 10 GbitE frame accommodating the IP packet according to a lookup table. By using these network interface devices and OPS system based on multiple optical label processing, we achieved, for the first time, 74-km single-mode fiber transmission, switching, and buffering of 80(8lambda×10) Gbit/s DWDM-based optical packets encapsulating almost 10 Gbit/s IP packets with error-free operation (IP packet loss rate < 10 -6 ).