PHOTONIC COMMUNICATION SYSTEM WITH SUB-LINE RATE BANDWIDTHGRANULARITY, PROTOCOL TRANSPARENCY AND DETERMINISTIC MESH CONNECTIVITY

摘要

A method for transparently transporting a multiplicity of data formats (TDM, frame, packet, cell, etc.) and bit rates in a deterministic manner over an optical telecommunications network facilitates purely photonic aggregation, separation and switching of granular, sub-wavelength capacity of bandwidths less than the line rate capacity. The sub-rate of the optical transport on a given optical frequency between network edge components uses time-slot based TDM channels that can be optically bursted across different wavelengths usin g wavelength hopping to allow all-optical switching of the channels between different signal paths in the optical switch nodes, on a time-slot-by-time slot basis using WDM to reduce the probability of blocked connections. The connection management of these wavelength hopping optical TDM bursts, (referred to as waveslots herein) is done using a connection protocol that employs conventional "least cost" path calculation algorithms to identify target connection routing through the optical network. A path integrity process ensures capacity, link removal and recalculation in cases of blocked connections. The time slot and wavelength map can be represented as a two dimensional matrix. Availability calculations can be done using simple matri x logic operations. The capability of the network to reconfigure and rearrange itself is maximized by the use of wavelength hopping. A full optical connection oriented bandwidth mechanism for management of that granular capacity is provided.