Patent ID: 7738788

Claim:
An address recognition apparatus for recognizing a destination address of a set of optical packet signals by setting a delay time of an address bit from a header bit based on the destination address, the address bit and the header bit being included in the set of optical packet signals, the address recognition apparatus comprising: an optical divider configured to divide the set of optical packet signals into first and second divided sets of optical packet signals, the optical divider being configured to emit the first and second divided sets of optical packet signals with an allocated time difference from each a first light receiving device adapted to receive the first divided set of optical packet signals and output a first light receiving signal; a second light receiving device adapted to receive the second divided set of optical packet signals and output a second light receiving signal; a first normalizing unit configured to normalize the first light receiving signal so that the maximum value of the first light receiving signal is equal to a first predetermined value, thereby generating a first normalized signal; a second normalizing unit configured to normalize the second light receiving signal so that the maximum value of the second light receiving signal is equal to a second predetermined value, thereby generating a second normalized signal; and an address determination unit configured to determine the destination address of the set of optical packet signals, based on the first and second normalized signals, wherein the address determination unit is configured to compare the maximum value of an added signal with a threshold, the added signal having been prepared by adding the first and second normalized signals, the address determination unit is configured to determine that the designation address is identical to an address allocated to a self-station associated with the address recognition apparatus if the maximum value of the added signal is equal to or higher than the threshold, and the address determination unit is configured to determine that the designation address is different from the address allocated to the self-station if the maximum value of the added signal is lower than the threshold.