Patent ID: 8724989

Claim:
An optical packet switching system comprising: an optical packet switching apparatus configured to switch a route of an inputted optical packet signal; and an optical packet transmitting apparatus configured to generate a client optical packet signal from a received client signal and configured to send out the generated client optical packet signal to the optical packet switching apparatus, the optical packet switching apparatus including: a client branching unit configured to branch off the client optical packet signal fed from the optical packet transmitting apparatus; a network branching unit configured to branch off a network optical packet signal fed from another optical packet switching system; a client optical delay unit configured to delay one of the branched-off client optical packet signals branched off by the client branching unit; a network optical delay unit configured to delay one of the branched-off network optical packet signals branched off by the network branching unit, the network optical delay unit having a longer delay time than that of the client optical delay unit; an optical switch unit having a client input port for inputting the client optical packet signal fed from the client optical delay unit, a network input port for inputting the network optical packet signal fed from the network optical delay unit, and an output port, the optical switch unit being configured to switch the route of the inputted client optical packet signal and the network optical packet signal so as to be sent out from the output port; and an optical switch control unit configured to input both the other of the branched-off client optical packet signals branched off by the client branching unit and the other of the branched-off network optical packet signals branched off by the network branching unit and configured to control the optical switch unit based on an analysis result of the inputted optical packet signals, wherein the optical switch control unit is configured such that a free time slot, during which no network optical packet signal is sent out from the output port, is detected, and wherein the optical packet transmitting apparatus adjusts transmit timing, with which the client optical packet signal is sent out, in such a manner that the client optical packet signal is inserted into the free time slot.