Patent ID: 7539414

Claim:
A method of transmitting packets in an optical network comprising at least two stations adapted to insert temporally into an optical fiber, between packets in transit sent by at least one first station of said stations on their upstream side, packets of optical signals carried by at least one common wavelength and having a common propagation direction, the method comprising: sending to at least one second station of said stations a synchronization signal indicative of beginning of an at least one sending session; and authorizing a sending unit of the at least one second station during a current session of the at least one sending session indicated by the synchronization signal to insert a waiting packet at said wavelength into said optical fiber, if an optical detection unit of the at least one second station does not detect any packet in transit at said wavelength during the current session for a duration exceeding a threshold duration, and if a remaining time between an end of a last packet in transit and an end of the current session is greater than a time necessary for inserting said waiting packet into said optical fiber, wherein the second station comprises a first coupler coupling the optical detection unit to the optical fiber and a second coupler coupling the sending unit to the optical fiber, wherein a propagation delay of the packets in transit in the optical fiber between the first and second couplers is larger than said threshold duration, wherein the insertion begins so that the inserted packet follows the last packet in transit in the optical fiber by a time interval starting from the end of the last packet in transit that is less than said threshold duration, and the insertion is performed independent of data bit rate of the optical network.