| abstract |
A time frame switching method and system of data units that utilize a common time reference, which is divided into a plurality of periodic time frames. The system is designed to operate with time frames, which have a plurality of predefined time durations. The plurality of data units that are contained in each of the time frames are switched through a switch fabric and then forwarded in a pipelined manner through the network. The switch fabric is implemented in various manners, such as, electronic cross connect and optical cross connect, wherein the optical cross connect can be a combination of at least one of the following: an optical cross-bar, an optical banyan network, a Lithium-Niobate optical switch, an Indium Phosphate optical switch, a 2-D MEMS optical switch, a 3-D MEMS optical switch, a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) based optical switch, an holographic optical switch, Bubble optical switch, plurality of tunable lasers, and plurality of optical stars. The system operates with high-speed wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) links, i.e., with multiple lambdas, having a plurality of transmission capacities. The outcome of this method is called fractional lambda switching with a plurality of time frame durations. |