Patent ID: 8155517

Claim:
An optical packet switching apparatus, comprising: an optical switching section that includes an optical switch to switch a path of an optical packet according to an electrical switch control signal, switches the path of the optical packet transmitted thereto according to the switch control signal to output the optical packet; a control section that takes out a header portion representing a destination of the optical packet transmitted thereto, photoelectrically converts the header to generate the switch control signal according to the destination so as to transmit the switch control signal to the optical switching section, and controls the optical switch; a light monitor section that monitors a first light quantity level which is a light quantity level of the optical packet transmitted thereto and a second light quantity level which is a light quantity level of the optical packet to be sent out; and an abnormality recognizing section that recognizes an effective timing of monitoring of the first light quantity level and the second light quantity level based on the switching control signal, and recognizes an abnormality based on the first light quantity level and the second light quantity level at the timing.