Optical-code-based IP longest prefix match with variable-length optical gates

A bottleneck arises in backbone electronic Internet Protocol (IP) routers because the lookup in a routing table is performed according to the longest prefix match. To resolve this problem, a versatile optical-code- (OC-) based longest prefix match that uses variable-length optical gates for photonic IP packet routing has been developed. The developed OC-based IP routing with the longest prefix match will reduce the number of routing entries so that the matching entry can be found more quickly. Moreover, the new routing procedure will help make photonic routers more compact and cost effective.