Ultrafast photonic ATM (ULPHA) switch and a video distribution experiment

We describe the hardware implementation and experimental results for each function of our ultrafast photonic ATM (ULPHA) switch, which is an output buffer type ATM switch based on a time-division broadcast-and-select network. The hardware description focuses on the cell coder for generating ultrafast optical cells, the cell buffer with cell selection function, and the cell decoder for detecting ultrafast optical cells. Experiments demonstrate the generation and detection of 23 Gb/s, 4 b optical cells, including bit-error-rate measurements, and the operation of the cell buffer with the cell selector function. In a video distribution switching experiment, the switching of two time-division-multiplexed channels (25 Gb/s, 4 b optical cells) was achieved.