Self-routed slot-switching scheme with an integrated optic two-wavelength demultiplexer using a content addressable integrated optical element

At multi-gigabaud rates, the overhead of optical electrical- optical conversion and the limitation imposed by the electronic drive circuitry is unacceptable. Selfrouting, in which the photonic date streams carry their own routing information and bulk of the header processing is achieved by the photonic circuitry, addresses this problem and enables the transmission and switching of data at the full capacity of the optical medium.