Patent ID: 7590102

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving data packets at a multistage switch, wherein the multistage switch includes a plurality of ingress switching modules, a core switching module operationally connected to the plurality of ingress switching modules, and a plurality of egress switching modules operationally connected to the core switch module; switching the data packets through the plurality of ingress switching modules, wherein said switching the data packets through a plurality of ingress switching modules includes storing the data packets in a plurality of queues; forming frames from the data packets in queues selected for switching; and switching the frames from ingress queuing engines to ingress crossbar data elements; forming, in the plurality of ingress switching modules, core frames from the data packets switched through the plurality of ingress switching modules; combining, in the plurality of ingress switching modules, a plurality of the core frames into a wavelength division multiplexed signal; switching the wavelength division multiplexed signal through the core switch module; separating, in the plurality of egress switching modules, the plurality of the core frames from the wavelength division multiplexed signal; extracting, in the plurality of egress switching modules, the data packets from the plurality of the core frames; switching the data packets extracted from the plurality of the core frames through the plurality of egress switching modules; and transmitting the switched data packets from the plurality of egress switching modules.