Patent ID: 6708000
Filing Date: 2004-03-16
Classification: H04J,H04Q

Abstract:
A photonic node including a packet switching unit for transferring a packet with a first destination address to another photonic node in accordance with the first destination address, and an optical path switching unit connected to the packet switching unit and for transferring a packet with a second destination address by establishing traffic of an optical path for a wavelength division multiplexing optical signal composed of optical signals of a plurality of wavelengths, comprising:a space switch unit having a couple of input ports and a couple of output ports, a wavelength division multiplexing optical signal composed of optical signals of a plurality of wavelengths and an add-packet with another node address being supplied thereto through the couple of input ports, respectively, an optical signal with the own node address being extracted from the wavelength division multiplexing optical signal and generated through a first output port as an optical signal to be dropped, and an optical signal with another node address contained in the wavelength division multiplexing optical signal and an optical signal caused by an add-packet with another node address being multiplexed together and generated through a second output port; and buffers for holding a plurality of add-packets generated as an electric signal and supplying the add-packets to the space switch unit; wherein the optical path switching unit is composed of a part of the space switch unit for branching each optical signal of the wavelength division multiplexing optical signal depending on its wavelength, an optical signal with the own node address being extracted from the wavelength division multiplexing optical signal and generated through the first output port as an optical signal to be dropped, and an optical signal with another node address contained in the wavelength division multiplexing optical signal and an optical signal caused by an add-packet with another node address being multiplexed together and generated through the second output port, and the packet switching unit is composed of a remaining part of the space switch unit for branching each optical signal of the wavelength division multiplexing optical signal depending on its wavelength and the buffers, a packet caused by an optical signal to be dropped which is generated from the optical path switching unit and a plurality of add-packets supplied through the buffer being supplied to the packet switching unit, and a packet caused by an optical signal to be dropped which is generated from the optical path switching unit through the first output port and a plurality of the add-packets being supplied to the optical path switching unit as an optical signal assigned with a predetermined wavelength depending on the destination address.