Patent ID: 8687644

Claim:
A packet transfer system, comprising: a plurality of optical nodes which constitute a ring optical network, the ring optical network including a first transmission path which is configured to transmit signals in one direction and a second transmission path which is configured to transmit signals in the other direction; and a plurality of packet transfer devices, each of which is connected to one of the optical nodes and is configured to transfer a packet between the connected optical node and a packet node which transmits and receives a packet, wherein each optical node located in the middle of the first and second transmission paths is configured to drop a signal received from the first transmission path to the packet transfer device while passing the signal to other downstream optical node, and to drop a signal received form the second transmission path to the packet transfer device, wherein each packet transfer device connected to each of the optical nodes located in the middle of the first and second transmission paths is configured to transfer the signal received and dropped by the optical node from the first transmission path to the packet node, and when the signal received and dropped by the optical node from the second transmission path is a unicast packet and a destination of the packet is the packet node is configured to transfer the received unicast packet to the packet node, and when the signal received and dropped by the optical node from the second transmission path is a unicast packet and a destination of the packet is not the packet node, is configured to transfer the received unicast packet to the optical node, wherein the optical node located at a starting point of the first transmission path and an end point of the second transmission path is configured to drop a signal received from the second transmission path to the packet transfer device, and is configured to add a signal received form the packet transfer device to the first transmission path, wherein the packet transfer device connected to the optical node located at a starting point of the first transmission path and an end point of the second transmission path, when the signal received and dropped from the second transmission path by the optical node is a unicast packet and a destination of the packet is the packet node, is configured to transfer the received unicast packet to the packet node, and when the signal received and dropped from the second transmission path is a unicast packet and a destination of the packet is not the packet node, to transfer the received unicast packet to the optical node, and when the packet received and dropped from the second transmission path is not a unicast packet, to transfer the received packet to the packet node and the optical node.