Patent ID: 6963564

Claim:
A method of scheduling the switching of data bursts through a router in an optical burst switched network, wherein data bursts are received by the router over a first set of optical transmission lines and are switched to a second set of optical transmission lines, wherein the data bursts are communicated over said first and second sets of optical transmission lines over multiple channels using synchronous fixed length slots, each burst occupying one or more slots in a channel, comprising the steps of: generating current scheduling bit patterns for respective outgoing channels indicating which slots in each outgoing channel are already scheduled to transmit a data burst within a predetermined time window relative to a current time point; generating an incoming burst bit sequence for an incoming burst indicating which slots within said predetermined time window would be occupied by said incoming burst relative to a current time point; and comparing said incoming burst bit sequence with said current scheduling bit patterns to determine whether said incoming burst can be scheduled for transmission on one of said outgoing channels.