Patent ID: 7277634
Filing Date: 2007-10-02
Classification: H04Q

Abstract:
1. A system comprising: a control interface (CIF) unit having a control processor to receive network management control labels from an optical switching network and a network processor to receive optical label signals; a photonic burst switch (PBS) coupled to the CIF; a plurality of tunable wavelength converters (TWCs) coupled to the PBS, each TWC comprising a first coupler, an optical delay unit coupled to the first coupler, a second coupler coupled to an input port of the PBS, and a tunable optical filter (TOF) coupled to the first coupler, the optical delay unit, and the second coupler; an optical demultiplexer (DMUX) coupled to the PBS via the plurality of TWCs, the DMUX to route the optical label signal and an associated optical data signal to the network processor of the CIF unit and the PBS, respectively, the optical data signal being a time division multiplexed (TDM) signal sent after the optical label signal, the optical label signal containing information for routing the optical data signal; and an optical multiplexer (MUX) coupled to the PBS and to a plurality of optical output lines that provide propagation paths for a plurality of TDM channels, the CIF unit to process the routing information in the network management control label and the optical label signal to cause the PBS to route the optical data signal to a first one of the plurality of TDM channels.