An optical resilient packet ring node with SOA-based loadable and erasable storage buffer

We demonstrate a novel semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based optical buffer with loadable and erasable functions and apply it in an optical resilient packet ring node. The two SOAs in our storage buffer configuration not only provide a nonlinear phase shift to implement the buffer function, but also compensate the transmission attenuation during long-time storage. The extinction ratio of this optical buffer is demonstrated to be more than 15 dB with a 2.5-Gbps packet, which indicates that power leakage from the buffer is small. The 2.5-Gbps all-optical packet switching experiment results are demonstrated with acceptable packet degradation after storage of 145 μs.