Patent ID: 7881617

Claim:
An optical packet processor, comprising: multiple optical packet inputs to receive asynchronous optical packets; multiple optical packet outputs to output the optical packets; an optical packet interconnect that connects the optical packet inputs to the optical packet outputs; multiple optical packet buffers to buffer the optical packets prior to be being output from the different optical packet outputs; and multiple optical packet synchronizers to operate independently of each other and receive a periodic clock signal signals having a series of successive clock periods corresponding to one or more phases of the optical packet buffers, wherein the optical packet synchronizers are configured to synchronize the asynchronous optical packets by aligning each of the optical packets with a different one of the successive clock periods based on differences between the clock periods in the periodic clock signal and the corresponding phases of the optical packets, wherein the multiple optical packet synchronizers are configured to output synchronized optical packets to corresponding inputs of multiple optical packet buffers, and wherein the multiple optical packet buffers are configured to receive one or more scheduling signals from corresponding optical buffer controllers and output the buffered optical packets responsive to the one or more scheduling signals.