Patent · US Expired

Non-blocking, scalable optical router architecture and method for routing optical traffic

US6665495B1 · kind B1 · utility

170Cited by
9References
73Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 27, 2000
Grant dateDec 16, 2003
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 20, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04Q2011/0084
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system and method for providing non-blocking routing of optical data through a telecommunications router that allows full utilization of available capacity. The router includes a number of data links that carry optical data packets to and from an optical router. The optical router includes a number of ingress edge units coupled to an optical switch core coupled further to a number of egress edge units. The ingress edge units receive the optical data packets from the data links and aggregate the optical data packets into “super packets” where each super packet is to be routed to a particular destination egress edge unit. The super packets are sent from the ingress edge units to an optical switch fabric within the optical switch core that routes each super packet through the optical switch fabric to the super packet's particular destination egress edge unit in a non-blocking manner (i.e., without contention or data loss through the optical switch fabric). This routing is managed by a core controller that monitors flow information at each ingress edge unit to control the super packet generation and transmission to the optical switch fabric and schedules each super packet…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.