Patent ID: 7042906

Claim:
A method for the control of burst switched networks and network devices, wherein any path along which a given control packet and corresponding burst traverses is composed of at least one initial node, at least one final node and zero or more intermediate nodes, and wherein for controlling transmission of data bursts by network devices in a burst switched network, each of said data bursts transmitted being preceded by a corresponding control packet which is transmitted ahead by an offset time, said method comprising the steps of: a) generating or receiving a control packet at an a control packet input port of a network node and processing the control packet to determine a control packet output port, and a data burst input port and data burst output port for the control packet and the corresponding data burst corresponding to said control packet; b) determining if bandwidth for the data burst at the data burst output port can be reserved successfully and if so, blocking other control packets from reserving the bandwidth, and proceeding to step d); c) if bandwidth at the determined data burst output port can not be reserved, performing bandwidth contention management and repeating step b); d) transmitting said control packet out the determined control packet output port to the next node; e) reserving the bandwidth at the determined data burst output port; f) determining how to configure the switching elements in the node to direct said corresponding data burst from the determined data burst input port to the determined data burst output port and generating switching element control signals to configure said switching elements to the determined new connections; g) without disturbing any pre-existing connections of the switching elements in the node until said new connection is made, scheduling the transmission of said switching element control signals to start at a scheduled starting time, said scheduled starting time being delayed from the completion of step f) until a time no later than immediately prior to said control signal's transmission period and the time required for the switching elements to receive the control signal and switch to the new connection, so that the new connection is ready for transmission of the corresponding data burst from the data burst input port to the data burst output port immediately prior to the data burst arriving at the data burst input port; h) at said scheduled time, transmitting said switching element control signals to the switching elements in the node and switching the switching elements to the new connection.