Patent ID: 7773608

Claim:
A router, comprising: a core controller; a plurality of egress edge units coupled to said core controller, said plurality of egress edge units including at least one egress port; and a plurality of ingress edge units coupled to said core controller and in communication with said plurality of egress edge units, wherein each ingress edge unit comprises: a plurality of ingress ports; an ingress interface associated with each ingress port, each ingress interface operable to segregate incoming optical data into a plurality of subflows, wherein each subflow contains data intended for a particular destination port; and a TWDM multiplexer operable to: receive subflows from each of the ingress interfaces at the corresponding ingress edge unit; generate a micro lambda from each received subflow; time multiplex each micro lambda at the corresponding ingress edge unit according to a schedule pattern received from the core controller; wavelength multiplex each micro lambda at the corresponding ingress edge unit; and transmit each micro lambda at the corresponding ingress edge unit to a switch fabric according to the schedule pattern, wherein each micro lambda comprises optical data intended for a particular destination port at one of the plurality of egress edge units, and wherein the plurality of egress edge units are configured to receive the plurality of micro lambdas and wherein each egress edge unit is configured to route micro lambdas received at the corresponding egress edge unit to the particular destination port for that micro lambda.