Wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) network element and a method for propagating data packets across the network element

A method for propagating a data packet from an input port of a network element to an output port of the network element, the network element comprising a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports interconnected by an optical switch, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) receiving the data packet at an input port;
• (b) processing the data packet to determine a destination output port out of the output ports of the network element;
• (c) partitioning the data packet to a plurality of fixed sized cells;
• (d) optically transmitting in parallel optical signals to an optical switch, the optical signals being representative of all the bits of a fixed sized cell;
• (e) switching the optical signals across the optical switch in view of the destination output port, during a single switching cycle;
• wherein jumping to step (d) until all the fixed sized cell of the data packet are transmitted and switched;
• (f) converting the optical signals to electrical signals being representative of the fixed size cells of the data packet;
• (g) accumulating electrical signals being representative of fixed sized cells of the same data packet to provide a data packet;
• and
• (h) providing the data packet to the destination output port.

A method for propagating a data packet from an input port of a network element to an output port of the network element, the network element comprising a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports interconnected by an optical switch, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) receiving the data packet at an input port;
• (b) processing the data packet to determine a destination output port out of the output ports of the network element;
• (c) partitioning the data packet to a plurality of fixed sized cells;
• (d) configuring the optical switch to switch in parallel the bits of a fixed sized cell to a destination path leading to the destination output port, for each fixed sized cell of the data packet;
• (e) optically transmitting the bits of a fixed sized cell to the optical switch, for each fixed sized cell of the data packet;
• (f) switching in parallel the transmitted bits to the destination path, for each fixed sized cell of the data packet;
• (g) reconstructing the data packet from the transmitted bits;
• and
• (h) providing the data packet to the destination output port.

A network element comprising:

• a plurality of input ports, each input port is configured to receive data packets and process at least a portion of each data packet to determine the destination output port associated with the data packet;
• a plurality of serial to parallel converters, coupled to the plurality of input ports and to an optical switch, each serial to parallel converter is configured to receive a data packet, to segment the data packet to at least one fixed sized cell and to provide the bits of each fixed size cell in parallel to the optical switch;
• an optical switch module for switching all bits of a fixed size cell in parallel to parallel to serial converters;
• and
• a plurality of parallel to serial converters, coupled to the optical switch module and to a plurality of output ports of the network element, the parallel to serial converters are configured to receive the bits of fixed sized cells in parallel and to provide data packets to the plurality of output ports.

A method for propagating a data packet across network elements along an optical path, each network element along the optical path comprising a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports interconnected by an optical switch, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) receiving the data packet at an ingress network element along the optical path;
• (b) processing the data packet to determine the optical path;
• (c) partitioning the data packet to at least one fixed sized cell;
• (d) generating a WDM optical signal being representative of all the bits of a fixed sized cell, for each fixed sized cell of the data packet;
• (e) switching WDM signals representative of the data packet across the optical path;
• and
• (f) reconstructing the data packet from the WDM signals representative of fixed sized cells belonging to the data packet, at an egress network element along the optical path.

A network comprising a plurality of network elements interconnected by optical links, at least one network element being an ingress network element, at least one network element being an egress network element, at least one network element being an intermediate network element, the network is configured to accommodate a plurality of optical paths between ingress and egress network elements;

• an ingress network element comprising:
• a plurality of input ports, each input port is configured to receive data packets and process at least a portion of each data packet to determine the destination output port associated with the data packet;
• a plurality of serial to parallel converters, coupled to the plurality of input ports and to an optical switch, each serial to parallel converter is configured to receive a data packet, to segment the data packet to at least one fixed sized cell and to generate WDM signals, each WDM signal representative of a fixed size cell;
• and
• at least one optical switch module for switching WDM signals in view of the optical path of the data packet.