37 results about "Terabit" patented technology

Embodiments of the present invention provide an optical network and switch architecture that provides non-blocking routing from an ingress router to an egress router in the network on a port-to-port basis. The present invention provides routing for fixed and variable length optical data packets of varying types (including Internet Protocol (IP), data, voice, TDM, ATM, voice over data, etc.) at speeds from sub-Terabit per second (Tbps), to significantly in excess of Petabit per second (Pbps). The present invention includes the functionality of both large IP routers and optical cross-connects combined with a unique, non-blocking optical switching and routing techniques to obtain benefits in speed and interconnected capacity in a data transport network. The present invention can utilize a TWDM wave slot transport scheme in conjunction with a just-in-time scheduling pattern and a unique optical switch configuration that provides for non-blocking transport of data from ingress to egress.One embodiment of the present invention includes a router comprising an ingress edge unit with one or more ports and an egress edge unit with one or more ports connected by a switch fabric. The ingress edge unit can receive optical data and convert the optical data into a plurality of micro lambdas, each micro lambda containing data destined for a particular egress edge port. The ingress edge unit can convert the incoming data to micro lambdas by generating a series of short-term parallel data bursts across multiple wavelengths. The ingress edge unit can also wavelength division multiplex and time domain multiplex each micro lambda for transmission to the switch fabric in a particular order. The switch fabric can receive the plurality of micro lambdas and route the plurality of micro lambdas to the plurality of egress edge units in a non-blocking manner. The router can also include a core controller that receives scheduling information from the plurality of ingress edge units and egress edge units. Based on the scheduling information, the core controller can develop a schedule pattern (i.e., a TWDM cycle) to coordinate the time domain multiplexing of micro lambdas at the plurality of ingress edge units and non-blocking switching of the micro lambdas at the switch fabric.

A method and apparatus are disclosed for scheduling arriving data packets for input to a switch having a plurality of input channels, and a plurality of output channels, the scheduling method is performed in successive scheduling phases where each scheduling phase further comprises at least log N scheduling iterations. The method is a parallelized weight-driven input queued switch scheduling algorithm which possesses good bandwidth and delay properties, is stable, and can be configured to offer various delay and quality of service (QoS) guarantees. The scheduling method utilizes envelope scheduling techniques and considers partially filled envelopes for scheduling.

An optical transceiver system is provided that comprises multiple parallel transceiver modules that are mounted on a card. The transceiver card is small in terms of spatial dimensions, has very good heat dissipation characteristics, and is capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving data at a rate equal to or greater than approximately one Tb per second (1 Tb / s). A plurality of the transceiver systems may be interconnected to achieve a communications hub system having even higher bandwidths. In addition, the transceiver system may be configured such that each card has a routing controller mounted thereon for performing router functions. The router functions include, for example: causing signals received by one transceiver module on the card to be routed to and transmitted by another of the transceiver modules; causing signals received by one transceiver module on the card to be retransmitted by the same transceiver module over one of it's optical transmit channels; and causing signals received by one transceiver module on the card to be routed to and transmitted by a transceiver module on a different card.

A switch module includes a switch integrated circuit (IC), a photonic integrated circuit (PIC), and a planar lightwave circuit (PLC). The PIC may include a plurality of light sources, an optical splitter, and a plurality of modulators. A dual MEMS may be used to align lens arrays, which may be used to couple light from the PIC to the PLC.