The application of photonic technologies to packet switching offers the potential of very large switch capacity in the terabit per second range. The merging of packet switching with photonic technologies opens up the possibility of packet switching in transparent photonic media, in which packets remain in optical form without undergoing optoelectronic conversion. This paper reviews recent work on photonic packet switching. Different approaches to photonic packet switching and key design issues are discussed.

The application of photonic technologies to packet switching offers the potential of very large switch capacity in the terabit per second range. The merging of packet switching with photonic technologies opens up the possibility of packet switching in transparent photonic media, in which packets remain in optical form without undergoing optoelectronic conversion. This paper reviews recent work on photonic packet switching. Different approaches to photonic packet switching and key design issues are discussed.