OPTICAL SWITCHING METHOD AND APPARATUS THEREFOR

摘要

PURPOSE: An optical switching method and an apparatus therefor are provided to use an optical signal having a successive data format as a physical data format in an optical packet switch using a general optical transceiver. CONSTITUTION: An optical switch is switched so that an input terminal number is identical to an output terminal number(401). The optical switch judges an optical packet is inputted according to each channel(402). If the optical packet is inputted, the optical switch is switched to an output terminal having a destination number of the optical packet during a length of the optical packet(403). If the optical packet is not inputted, the optical switch judges whether an optical packet inputted from an other input terminal for the purpose of an output terminal switched to the input terminal in which the optical packet is not inputted exists(404). If the optical packet exists, the optical switch switches the optical packet to a current output terminal, retrieves an other empty output terminal, and switches a current input terminal to the retrieved output terminal(405).