Internet routers are experiencing 100 updates per second and potentially reaching upwards of 1000 per second [26], during which AL operations are stalled and the router remains idle, considerably limiting the performance. This, in-turn, requires fast Write operations to the CAM-table, with short latencies [25; 26; 27; 28], to enable fast re-configurability of the network and rapid updating of the AL table. Having detected the impact of slow-performing AL operations, optics have tried to circumvent the associated delays, mainly through the use of optical labeling and header processing schemes. These insert a bit-serial label in front of the payload or various multiplexing schemes, to route the data based on this label instead of the actual destination IP address [29], yet they typically utilize lower label data-rates, hoping to retain compatibility with slow CAM speeds. At the same time, optical memories have undergone two decades of developments and are now on the verge of developing higher capacity [30], programmable [31], and/or non-volatile [32] devices towards more practical memory sub-systems. Initially, optical memories were conceived as high bandwidth alternatives of electronic RAMs to overcome the \"Memory Wall\", achieving multiple elementary Flip-Flops (FFs) with high speed and low power consumption credentials [33; 34; 35; 36; 37; 38; 39; 40; 41], including coupled SOAs [34], III-V-on-SOI microdisk lasers [35], and polarization bistable Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) [36], as well as coupled SOA-based Mach-Zehnder Interferometers (SOA-MZIs) [33; 37]. Optical FFs, serving as optical storing units, were then combined with random access controlling gates, forming functional optical RAMs, so far demonstrated either as fully functional architectures using mature SOA-based devices [37; 38; 39] or as discrete components based on photonic crystals [40; 41]. These have both been experimentally shown to support speeds beyond 10 Gb/s, while in-depth frequency theoretical memory speed analyses [42; 43] and validated time-domain SOA-based memory simulations [43; 44] have revealed potential rates of up to 40 Gb/s. Furthermore, by combining optical Column/Row Address Selectors [45; 46] and optical Tag Comparators [47], the first designs of a complete optical cache memory architecture for high-performance computers revealed a 16 GHz operation via physical layer simulations [48]. All of these have increased the maturity of optical memories towards penetrating the computing domain, where the use of electronics is so far undisputable, whereas in optical networks, optical FFs have been suggested for contention resolution [49]. Following the paradigm of optical RAMs, optical alternatives of CAM architectures may facilitate similar advances and speed enhancements towards ultra-fast router AL memories in the high-end router domain. In this regime, some preliminary first steps, stemming from our group, have managed to develop the first photonic alternative CAM-based elements [50; 51], which is the main focus of this paper. More specifically, in Section 2, we initially discuss the architectures and main functional building blocks of electronic AL memories, followed by the development of monolithic photonic integration for optical FFs and RAM memories on a monolithic InP platform [33; 39] in Section 3. In Section 4, we present the first experimental proof-of-principle of an all-optical Binary CAM (B-CAM) cell architecture at 10 Gb/s [50]. This architecture is later extended in a more advanced all-optical (T-CAM configuration in Section 4, directly supporting, for the first time, a wildcard bit operation of a logical \"X\" value in the optical domain [51]. By introducing Wavelength encoding in the search word, a 4-bit Matchline (ML) architecture is developed, capable of providing a unique identifying signal upon a match of the destination address with the stored prefix-entry [51].