Optical transport networks

Abstract

The present invention provides an optical packet switch (3, 4) that facilitates efficient provisioning of packet services through a predominantly circuit-switched optical transport network infrastructure (1). In particular, the optical packet switch (3, 4) fits within a network where circuit and packet-switched traffic are transported together through the optical transport network (1). Fast switching is provided for packet traffic where granularity below the wavelength level is required, while slow wavelength switching and routing is facilitated at the same time. Fast switching and packet traffic aggregation for efficient bandwidth utilisation is performed at the edge where the optical transport network (1) interfaces with the IP domain (6), where dynamic and fast wavelength allocation for packet traffic is required.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.