All optical batcher banyan switch, batcher switch, banyan switch and contention manager

An all-optical contention manager comprising:

• at least two inputs to receive optical input signals;
• at least two outputs configured to pass optical signals to a Banyan switch;
• a contention manager configured to detect and resolve routing contentions between the optical input signals prior to outputting the optical signals, the optical input signals comprising tags that include routing information, the contention manager comprising:
• at least one photonic comparator configured to compare the tags of the optical input signals to detect contention, each photonic comparator comprising a plurality of logic gates, and each gate having a single semiconductor optical amplifier configured to process the optical input signals entirely optically.