Patent attributes
An optical packet exchanger is provided which prevents a transmittable capacity of an information signal from decreasing, and which facilitates the extracting an address signal even if a modulation speed for the information signal becomes high. An optical modulation section (102) outputs an optical packet obtained by subjecting output light from a light source (101) to an intensity modulation using an information signal and a phase modulation using an address signal corresponding to a transmission destination for the information signal. An optical splitter section (301) splits the optical packet into two optical packets. An address reading section (302) reads the address signal from the phase of one of the optical packets output from the optical splitter section (301). Based on the address signal output from the address reading section (302), a path switching section (303) determines an output port for the other optical packet output from the optical splitter section (301).
