All-optical packet buffer system based on controllable-delay recirculating loop

We present an all-optical packet buffer system that enables variable delay of the incoming packets in the optical domain based on the controllable-delay recirculating loop. It consists of two optical logic gate stages based on cross gain modulation nonlinear effect of semiconductor optical amplifiers to control the amount of delay. Incoming optical packets were either stored in the recirculating loop or routed to the system output by an optical control signal. The validity of the system has been experimentally verified using the optical bit sequences operating at 1 Gbps.