Fiber loop optical buffers enable data storage for discrete time intervals and therefore appear suitable for applications in optical asynchronous transfer mode (OATM)-based networks where data are transmitted in cells of fixed length. In this paper, the feasibility and the limitations of optical data storage in a fiber loop optical buffer are studied theoretically and experimentally, A model of a fiber loop buffer, incorporating semiconductor laser amplifiers (SLA) as switching gates, is described. The two major interfering quantities are cross talk and amplified spontaneous emission of the SLA gates. To limit the impact of cross talk on the signal quality, an on/off ratio of the SLA gates of at least 30 dB is required. The paper describes the optimum operation conditions, which enable data storage for more than 100 circulations even for data rates in the range from 10 to 160 Gb/s

Four-wave-mixing based on ultrafast nonlinear gain dynamics in a semiconductor laser amplifier was applied for wavelength conversion of a 10-channel OFDM signal with a channel spacing of 9 GHz and a modulation rate of 140 Mb/s per channel. Conversion over 275 GHz was realised. BER measurements revealed no severe system degradation due to polarisation fluctuations or cross-talk

The properties of a semiconductor laser amplifier as optical switching gate are investigated. Particular attention is paid to gain, contrast ratio, and switching time of the device. These properties are studied experimentally and theoretically with respect to the injection current, optical input power, and cavity resonances. The experimental arrangements and the theoretical method are described. As an example of the various applications of semiconductor laser amplifier gates, packet switching experiments with self-routing, employing cascaded switching gates, are reported. In a theoretical analysis the restrictions that the properties of semiconductor laser amplifier gates impose on a larger switching system consisting of many such gates are investigated

A 40 Gbit/s time-division multiplexed signal was demultiplexed to 10 Gbit/s using a single modelocked semiconductor laser as the clock source. The pulses of the laser directly control an all-optical switch for demultiplexing

An investigation of a fibre loop optical memory with active switching and amplifying elements and capable of random access is presented. Transmission of 1.7 Gbit/s, 512 bit ATM-cells is achieved at BER=10-9 for up to seven fibre loop round trips