Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/L87156/01
Title:	PHOTONIC INTEGRATED GIGABIT SWITCHES (PIGS) FOR 100GB/S PACKETS
Principal Investigator:	Marsh, Professor JH
Other Investigators:	Coleman, Professor A De La Rue, Honorary Professor R Aitchison, Professor S
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	BT QinetiQ
Department:	Electronics and Electrical Engineering
Organisation:	University of Glasgow
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 May 1998	Ends:	30 April 2001	Value (£):	229,892
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Optical Communications
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Aerospace, Defence and Marine
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Optical packet switching is likely to have significant long-term impact on telecommunications. There is presently little research on this topic in Britain and this project represents the first such study, bringing together two respected and world leading institutions in the areas of optical switching systems, networking and optical device fabrication. The project will be driven by anticipated network requirements and its principle aim is to demonstrate the feasibility of both optical packet switching nodes with limited buffering and their concomitant synchronisation circuitry by fabricating useful and practical integrated switching modules. These modules will be incorporated into testbeds at the University of Strathclyde, Aston University and BT labs. The switch architecture use 2x2 switch devices and delay-line buffers which can be accurately fabricated at Glasglow in low loss silica-on-silicon technology. The SLA switch devices in the architecture only operate at the packet rate of several hundred Mb/s, simplifying the electronic control and ameliorating EMI problems which would otherwise prove troublesome. Small nodes of only three switches have been demonstrated using fibre rather than integrated delay line. The demonstration of an integrated node of five or six switches built on silica-on-silicon technology would be an impressive world first.
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Further Information:
Organisation Website:	http://www.gla.ac.uk