Edge router for optical label switched network

A communication network system, comprising:

• a core network having a plurality of first ports associated therewith and providing optical label switching on a plurality of wavelength division multiplexing wavelengths of packets from any of said first ports to any other of said first ports;
• a plurality of client networks each providing switching of packets between any of second ports associated therewith;
• edge routers connecting said core network to respective ones of said client networks through one of said first ports and one of said second ports, each said edge router including:
• a plurality of buffers for queuing packets received from said respective one client network and destined for respective ones of said first ports of said core network, each buffer including a maximum packet size register for determining when said each buffer has queued packets to a maximum length and a timeout limit for determining when one of said packets queued in said each buffer has reached a maximum time limit in said each buffer;
• an assembler triggerable by any one register of the maximum packet size registers and the timeout limit registers for assembling packets associated with said any one register into a super packet;
• and
• encoding circuitry for impressing said super packet into an optical super packet and impressing thereupon an optical label determining which of said first ports said optical super packet is directed.

A method of routing packets between a core network utilizing optical label switching and client networks utilizing at least some electronic routing, comprising the steps performed at an edge router between said core network and one of said client networks of:

• receiving from said one client network a plurality of packets including packet payloads and a destination on another of said client networks;
• sorting said packets according to egress ports of said core network associated with said destination thereof;
• buffering said sorted packets into respective queues;
• assembling said buffered packets in one of said queues into a payload of a super packet whenever either a length of packets to be buffered in said one queue exceeds a predetermined maximum or a timeout of said packets buffered in said queue exceeds a predetermined age;
• and
• encoding an optical label onto said super packet indicating said egress port of assembled packets.

A communication network, comprising:

• a core network comprising a plurality of optical routers linked by optical links and switching first packets having first payloads and associated first headers, said headers having a first number of bits;
• a plurality of client networks at least some of which comprise a plurality of electronic routers and switch second packets having second payload and associated second headers, said second headers having a second number of bits greater than said first number of bits;
• and
• edge routers linking one of said electronic routers in a respective one of said client networks to respective ones of said optical routers and capable of forming a plurality of said first packets destined for one of said client networks other than said respective one client network into a second packet and generating said associated first header, wherein each of said edge routers comprises:
• a plurality of electronic buffers for queuing said second packets received from said respective one client network according to which of other of said client networks said second packets are destined,
• a plurality of maximum packet size registers associated with each of said buffers,
• a plurality of timeout limit registers associated with each of said buffers, and
• one or more said second packets stored in a respective buffer are aggregated into one of said first packets when either of an associated maximum size registers or an associated timeout limit register is triggered.