TIME FRAME SWITCHING RESPONSIVE TO GLOBAL COMMON TIME REFERENCE

摘要

A time frame switching method and system of data units that utilize a global common time reference (002), which is divided into a plurality of contiguous periodic time frames (G1-G4). The system is designed to operate with high-speed wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) links, i.e., with multiple lambdas. The plurality of data units that are contained in each of the time frames (G1-G4, R1-R4) are forwarded in a pipelined manner through the network switches, and can be switched from any incoming WDM channel (41-l, 41-k) to any subset of outgoing WDM channels (41-1, 41-k) responsive to the global common time reference (002). The outcome of this switching method is called fractional lambda switching. The switching system further comprises an interface system to asynchronous data packet flows. The interface system can aggregate multiple asynchronous data packet flows into a single predefined switching schedule over the synchronized switching system.