Patent ID: 6940863
Filing Date: 2005-09-06
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
1. An edge router positionable at the interface between a first packet network and a second optical label switched packet network having a plurality of ports including the port at which said edge router is positionable, comprising: a plurality of buffers associated with respective ones of said ports for buffering packets received from said first network and intended for transmission to a respective egress port of said second network, maximum packet size registers respectively associated with each of said buffers for determining when the associated buffer has reached a respective maximum size for length of buffered packets; timeout limit registers respectively associated with each of said buffers for determining when an age of packets buffered in the associated buffer register has reached a maximum time; an assembler triggerable by either of the maximum packet size register or the timeout limit register of any one of said buffers to assemble the packets buffered into said any one buffer into a super packet, encoding an optical label onto said super packet indicating which of said ports said super packet is to be routed on said second network, and transmitting a resultant optical super packet onto said second network, a disassembler receiving super packet from said second network and disassembling packets therefrom for respective transmission onto said first network.