Multicast-capable optical-code label packet switch: Proposal and its experimental demonstration

In this paper, we propose the optical multicast-capable packet switch network based upon OC-label switching, which can enhance scalability in the number of multicast members because this approach can combine the wavelength with the optical code as the labels. The optical implementation features two key components. Firstly, a multiport encoder and a decoder are newly introduced, which allows one to generate and process the optical-code labels simultaneously, thus ensuring a good scalability. Secondly, an optical multicast-capable matrix switch which is composed of 1×2 TO-SWs enables the dynamical updating of the multicast forwarding table. Finally, this multicast-capable optical packet switched network is experimentally demonstrated.