Patent ID: 6532088
Filing Date: 2003-03-11
Classification: H04J,H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
An ingress node in a fiber optic ring network, wherein the ring includes a plurality of nodes, comprising:an input interface connected to a packet switched network for receiving data packets in a first format; a processor for determining a path for the data packets through the fiber optic ring network in response to header information in the data packets and generating routing and forwarding tables for the data packets through the fiber optic ring network, wherein the forwarding tables include information for each of the plurality of nodes on forwarding the data packets; a control channel interface connected to a control channel, wherein the ingress node transmits the forwarding tables to each of the plurality of nodes on the control channel; and an output interface for transmitting the data packets onto the fiber optic ring network, wherein the data packets are embedded in a synchronous optical signal format.