Claims
- 1. An optical packet-switched ring network, comprising:
a node including
an optical switch coupled to a fiber of the ring network; a transmit switch coupled to the optical switch; a wavelength stacking assembly coupled to the transmit switch; a receive switch coupled to the optical switch; and a wavelength unstacking assembly coupled to the receive switch.
- 2. The network according to claim 1, wherein the wavelength stacking assembly includes a tunable laser, a circulator coupled to the tunable laser, a demultiplexer coupled to the circulator followed by delay lines and a reflector.
- 3. The network according to claim 1, wherein the wavelength unstacking assembly includes a circulator, a demultiplexer coupled to the circulator followed by delay lines and a reflector.
- 4. The network according to claim 1, wherein the transmit switch includes a buffer for storing packets, and the receive switch includes a buffer for storing received packets.
- 5. The network according to claim 1, wherein the node performs a credit-based MAC protocol.
- 6. The network according to claim 5, wherein the node further includes an admission controller for determining whether bandwidth requests are accepted based upon available frame capacity.
- 7. A method for transmitting and receiving stacked packets on a ring network comprising:
stacking packets of varying wavelengths to form a composite transmit data packet; buffering the transmit data packet in a transmit switch; transmitting the transmit data packet onto the ring network via an optical switch; receiving a receive data packet via the optical switch; buffering the receive data packet in a receive switch; and unstacking the receive data packet.
- 8. The method according to claim 7, further including stacking the transmit data packet using a tunable laser, a circulator coupled to the tunable laser, a demultiplexer coupled to the circulator followed by delay lines and a reflector.
- 9. The method according to claim 7, further including unstacking the receive data packet using a circulator, a demultiplexer coupled to the circulator followed by delay lines and a reflector.
- 10. The method according to claim 7, further including setting the optical switch and the transmit switch to a cross state to put the transmit data packet on the ring network.
- 11. The method according to claim 7, further including setting the optical switch and the receive switch to a cross state to obtain the receive data packet from the ring network.
- 12. A method for making decisions when to transmit and receive data packets, comprising:
making transmission reservations in time via a control channel; dividing time into cycles; and scheduling transmission reservations, packet transmissions and receptions.
- 13. The method according to claim 12, further including making a transmission reservation by a node in a first potentially empty slot of a current cycle on the control channel for a destination node that has not been addressed in the cycle.
- 14. The method according to claim 12, further including stacking a composite packet in a next cycle after its transmission has been reserved.
- 15. A method according to claim 12, further including storing a packet until it is transmitted two cycles after its transmission has been reserved.
- 16. A method according to claim 12, further including receiving a packet from the ring by a node two cycles after its reservation has been observed on the control channel.
- 17. A method according to claim 12, further including storing the packet until it is unstacked at a receiver in the next cycle after it has been received.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Nos. 60/239,766, filed on Oct. 12, 2000 and 60/240,464, filed on Oct. 13, 2000, which are incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60239766 |
Oct 2000 |
US |
|
60240464 |
Oct 2000 |
US |