Patent ID: 7426210
Filing Date: 2008-09-16
Classification: H04J,H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
1. A router to be coupled to a plurality of data lines, comprising: a core controller; a plurality of egress edge units coupled to said core controller, said plurality of egress edge units including at least one egress port; a plurality of ingress edge units coupled to said core controller and to communicate with said plurality of egress edge units; and an optical switch fabric to communicate with the plurality of ingress edge units and egress edge units to receives the plurality of micro lambdas from the plurality of ingress edge units and to route each micro lambda in a non-blocking manner through the optical switch fabric to the egress edge unit associated with the particular destination port for that micro lambda, wherein each ingress edge unit is to receive optical data, convert the optical data into a plurality of micro lambdas, time wavelength division multiplex each micro lambda and transmit each micro lambda to an egress edge unit; wherein each micro lambda comprises optical data intended for a particular destination port at one of the plurality of egress edge units; wherein the plurality of egress edge units are to receive the plurality of micro lambdas and wherein each egress edge unit is to route each micro lambda received at the corresponding egress edge unit to the particular destination port for that micro lambda; wherein each ingress edge unit is to time wavelength division multiplex each micro lambda at the corresponding ingress edge unit by: wherein the core controller is to establish a schedule pattern for time domain multiplexing of micro lambdas to control the arrival of each of the plurality of micro lambdas at the optical switch fabric so as to avoid blocking at the optical switch fabric; and wherein the core controller comprises: