Patent ID: 8229300

Claim:
An optical switch controller configured to control an optical interconnection network that variably connects at least one input data channel to a plurality of output channels via at least one switching element, the optical switch controller comprising: an address reader module having at least one semiconductor optical amplifier, the address reader module configured to: process an optical signal; read a data tag from the at least one input data channel to obtain information; and output at least one address control signal based upon the information read from the data tag, wherein the address control signal is configured to control one or more switching elements in an optical interconnection network; a comparator stage configured to: read the data tag from at least two input data channels; and output at least one comparator output signal to indicate whether the information within the data tags read from the at least two input data channels is the same or different; and an output stage configured to: receive the address control signal; and output an output signal based on both the address control signal and the comparator output signal.