Abstract

The asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is attractive because it supports services having various bit rates. High-bandwidth optical technology using ATM will be the key to overcoming the throughput limitations of electrical systems. Some experiments on ATM switching with optical buffers have recently been presented[1, 2]. To increase the capacity of switching systems, wavelength division multiplexing is a promising technology in photonic switching[3]. We describe photonic ATM switches with wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) output buffers. We use WDM technology to allow cell collision in a broadcast-and-select network, which leads simple network architecture. We also propose and experimentally demonstrate a WDM output buffer to read collided cells one by one.

© 1995 Optical Society of America