Patent ID: 8019228

Claim:
An optical transmission system for performing optical transmission, comprising: an optical switch node including an optical switch for switching an optical packet, and a timing adjustment signal generator, responsive to reception of a timing adjustment request signal, for generating and outputting a timing adjustment signal to a node which is transmitting an optical packet at such transmission timing as to cause timeslot displacement at input ports of the optical switch; and a plurality of terminal nodes each including an optical packet transmitter for transmitting an optical packet affixed with a timestamp to the optical switch, a timestamp analyzer for receiving the optical packet switched by the optical switch to analyze continuity of the timestamp and, on detection of timeslot displacement as a result of the analysis, transmitting the timing adjustment request signal, and a timing corrector for receiving the timing adjustment signal and correcting the transmission timing of the optical packet, wherein, provided that the terminal nodes include first and second terminal nodes and a destination terminal node and that first and second optical packets transmitted from the first and second terminal nodes, respectively, are addressed to the destination terminal node, the timestamp analyzer of the destination terminal node operates, in response to reception of the first and second optical packets switched by the optical switch, to analyze continuity of the timestamps affixed to the first and second optical packets and, if timeslot displacement has occurred, to output the timing adjustment request signal, the timing adjustment signal generator operates, in response to reception of the timing adjustment request signal, to output the timing adjustment signal for correcting transmission timing displacement, to the first or second terminal node whose optical packet transmission timing is displaced on a timeslot-by-timeslot basis, and the timing corrector of the first or second terminal node corrects the optical packet transmission timing on a timeslot-by-timeslot basis, in accordance with the received timing adjustment signal.