Patent ID: 7443790

Claim:
A method for routing optical data packets, comprising: at a packet scheduler of an optical router, developing a schedule pattern of time slots for scheduling transmission of said optical data packets through said optical router based on slot deflection routing, wherein said time slots include at least a first time slot in which an ingress edge unit of said optical router is configured to communicate with a destination egress edge unit of said optical router, at least a second time slot in which said ingress edge until is configured to communicate with an intermediate edge unit and at least a third time slot in which said intermediate edge unit is configured to communicate with said destination egress edge unit; routing or rerouting said optical data packets through said optical router according to said slot deflection routing based schedule pattern to allow for compensation of traffic demands and faults within said optical router; receiving a data packet at said ingress edge unit; determining whether bandwidth allocated in said first time slot is sufficient for said ingress edge unit to communicate said data packet to said destination egress unit; if sufficient bandwidth has been allocated, communicating said data packet to said destination egress edge unit in said first timeslot; if sufficient bandwidth has not been allocated, deflecting said data packet to said intermediate edge unit in said second time slot; and communicating said data packet to said destination egress edge unit in said third time slot.