Patent ID: 7245831

Claim:
A method for optically transmitting an optical packet from a source node to a destination node in a network of arbitrary topology; wherein the optical packet comprises a header and a payload, wherein the header encodes the address of the destination node, and wherein the payload comnrises data to be transmitted to the destination node; said method comprising the sequential steps (a) through (e) of: (a) routing the optical packet between two nodes in a network, from a source node to a second node; (b) extracting and processing the header at the second node following the initial arrival of the packet at the second node; and transmitting the packet back to source node; (c) following receipt of the packet at the source node from the second node, transmitting the packet back to the second node; (d) following receipt of the packet at the second node for the second time, replacing the header with an undated header following said processing; and either forwarding the packet to a third node, or storing the packet by circulating the packet between the second node and the source node depending on the result of header processing and the availability of a link and wavelength to transmit to a third node; and (e) repeating steps (b) through (d) on further nodes in the network, until the optical packet reaches the destination node.