| CPC H04Q 11/0005 (2013.01) [H04J 14/0267 (2013.01); H04J 14/0307 (2023.08); H04Q 11/0003 (2013.01); H04Q 2011/002 (2013.01); H04Q 2011/005 (2013.01); H04Q 2011/0073 (2013.01); H04Q 2213/31 (2013.01)] | 9 Claims |
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1. An optical buffer for buffering an optical packet, comprising:
a clock generator for generating a clock signal;
an optical unbalanced Mach Zehnder Interferometer (MZI);
a fiber delay line (FDL) having an FDL length;
a scheduler; and
an exit semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) at an exit of the optical buffer,
wherein the clock generator, the optical unbalanced MZI, the FDL, the scheduler and the exit SOA are arranged in a circuit,
wherein the optical packet has an optical packet signal,
wherein the scheduler is configured to insert the optical packet into the optical buffer and to determine a number of circulations of the optical packet through the circuit, and to activate the exit SOA to release the optical packet from the optical buffer,
wherein the MZI includes a pair of MZI semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) to modulate the clock signal based on the optical packet signal to create a reshaped optical packet after each circulation of the optical packet through the circuit, and
wherein the FDL introduces a delay in the optical packet proportional to the FDL length, and
wherein the circuit comprises an optical dispersion management module to compensate for dispersion introduced in the FDL, and
wherein the clock and optical packet are fed into each of the pair of MZI SOAs in counter-propagating directions for causing cross gain modulation (XGM) and cross phase modulation (XPM) of the clock signal and of the optical packet signal, and
wherein the reshaped optical packet is a wavelength converted optical packet, and
wherein the clock generator includes a tunable laser, and wherein the scheduler is further configured for powering down the exit SOA and the tunable laser following release of the optical packet to thereby empty the optical buffer.
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