Patent ID: 7409158

Claim:
An optical router comprising: a plurality of input ports; a plurality of output ports; an add port configured to input data received from a lower Internet protocol (IP) router; a drop port configured to output data to the IP router; a wavelength division demultiplexing section arranged to wavelength-division-demultiplex wavelength signals input through the input ports and the add port; an input interface arranged to convert optical frames input from the wavelength division demultiplexing section into electrical signals, to separate a header from the electric signal, and to convert the electrical signals to optical frames; an optical switch configured to perform a high-speed switching of the optical frames output from the input interface; an output interface arranged to process the optical frames switched by and output from the optical switch; a wavelength division multiplexer arranged to wavelength-division-multiplex outputs of the output interface section and transmit the multiplexed outputs to another optical router; a drop interface arranged to process the optical frames transmitted to the IP router via the wavelength division multiplexing section; a header processor arranged to recognize header information and to control the optical router, and to read an address of a destination by using the header received from the input interface; an optical switch controller arranged to control a connection state of the optical switch and to switch the optical frames; a header reinserter arranged to reinsert headers into outputs of the optical router, said headers being inserted at a rate such that the data frame rate is an integer number of the header rate; and an edge traffic aggregator including an ingress part and an egress part, the ingress part configured to convert IP packets input from the IP router into optical frames, and the egress part configured to convert the optical frames into IP packets and to transmit the converted packets to the lower IP router, the input interface comprises a buffer being arranged to store the electrical signals and being configured to perform synchronization, and the output interface converting optical frames input from the optical switch into electric signals and recovering optical signals and reinserting headers received from the header inserter.