Patent ID: 8542996

Claim:
An optical packet switching apparatus comprising: a branching unit configured to branch off a received optical packet signal; an optical switch unit configured to switch a route of one of the branched-off optical packet signal so as to output the optical packet signal; and an optical switch control unit configured to extract routing information from an other of the branched-off optical packet signal and configured to control the optical switching unit according to the extracted routing information, the optical switch control unit including: an optical-to-electrical (O/E) converter configured to convert the other of the branched-off optical packet signal into an electrical data signal and configured to extract a clock signal from the electrical data signal; a serial/parallel converter configured to perform a serial/parallel conversion of the electrical data signal into a parallel data signal and configured to divide the frequency of the clock signal so as to generate a divided clock signal; an arrangement detector configured to detect an arrangement of a frame synchronization pattern contained in the parallel data; a rearrangement unit configured to rearrange the parallel data signal based on detected arrangement information on the frame synchronization pattern; a frame synchronization unit configured to establish frame synchronization based on the frame synchronization pattern contained in the rearranged parallel data signal; a route detector configured to detect routing information contained in the rearranged parallel data signal after the frame synchronization has been established; a generator configured to generate an optical switch control signal used to control the optical switch unit based on the detected routing information; and an adjustment unit configured to adjust output timing with which to output the optical switch control signal to the optical switch unit, based on the arrangement information on the frame synchronization pattern.