Photonic integrated circuit optical buffer for packet-switched networks.

A chip-scale optical buffer performs autonomous contention resolution for 40-byte packets with 99% packet recovery. The buffer consists of a fast, InP-based 2 x 2 optical switch and a silica-on-silicon low loss delay loop. The buffer is demonstrated in recirculating operation, but may be reconfigured in feed-forward operation for longer packet lengths. The recirculating buffer provides packet storage in integer multiples of the delay length of 12.86 ns up to 64.3 ns with 98% packet recovery. The buffer is used to resolve contention between two 40 Gb/s packet streams using multiple photonic chip optical buffers.