OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

摘要

A node in an optical communications network receives optical packets at its input. It determines a priority assigned to each optical packet. When the optical packet is a transit packet destined for another node then, if the packet is determined to have a relatively higher priority, it is output from the node via a continuous-flow transmission path. Other transit packets havi ng relatively lower priorities are sent via an alternative transmission path th at may include queues or buffers resulting in a variable delay.