Low-loss switching fabric design for recirculating buffer in WDM optical packet switching networks using arrayed waveguide grating routers

In this paper, we give a new switching fabric design for the recirculating buffer in optical packet switching networks. We note that since a packet to be buffered can be routed to any delay lines, the switching fabric connecting packets to the delay lines can be simplified. We give a design based on the arrayed waveguide grating router, and give a simple linear time-control algorithm for assigning buffer locations to the packets. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first switching fabric specifically designed for recirculating buffers which takes advantage of the fact that packets can be routed to any delay lines.