Optical label switching in telecommunication using semiconductor lasers, amplifiers and electro-absorption modulators

We demonstrate all-optical label encoding and updating for an orthogonally labeled signal in combined IM/FSK modulation format utilizing semiconductor lasers, semiconductor optical amplifiers and electro-absorption modulators. Complete functionality of a network node including two-hop transmission and all-optical label swapping is also experimentally demonstrated with overall penalty of less than 2 dB, proving the orthogonal IM/FSK labeling scheme to be a feasible solution for future optically labeled networks.