OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK NODE AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING DATA TRANSMISSION BETWEEN OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK NODES

摘要

An optical communications network node (10) comprising an optical transmitter module (16), an optical receiver module (12), an electrical cross-point switch (20) and control apparatus (24, 26). The optical transmitter module (16) comprises optical sources (18) each having a different operating wavelength and each being selectively assignable as an optical circuit switching channel source or an optical burst switching channel source. The optical receiver module (12) comprises a said plurality of optical detectors each operable at one of said operating wavelengths. The electrical cross-point switch (20) comprises switch paths (22) and is configurable to allocate a first set of switch paths for optical circuit switching and a second set of switch paths for optical burst switching. The control apparatus (24, 26) configures the switch paths (22), separates data traffic to be dropped from transit data traffic, and schedules data traffic for transmission on optical burst switching channels to the respective sources (18).