Patent ID: 6892001

Claim:
An optical packet header identifier for identifying a header of an optical packet, comprising: an optical waveguide, a tilted grating for diffracting an optical beam propagating within a core of said optical waveguide toward an outside of said optical waveguide, a set of tilted gratings constituted by said tilted grating and having a thickness of gratings approximately equal to a length occupied in a direction along an optical axis within said optical waveguide by one bit of a signal of an optical packet, and said plurality of sets of tilted gratings are encoded and arranged in a direction along an optical axis based on a specific header code for said optical packet; optical beam focusing means for spatially focusing optical beams diffracted by all of the sets of tilted gratings; a first photo receiver for receiving said focused optical beams; and a second photo receiver for receiving an optical beam propagating through said optical waveguide at an output end of said optical waveguide.