University of Southern California

Joseph Bannister

Joseph Dean Touch

Alan Eli Willner

Purushotham Kamath

John E McGeehan

Stephen Suryaputra

Aatash Patel

A packet switch architecture that can switch optical packets at high throughputs without using any random access memory, without fragmenting variable length packets into fixed length fragments and reassembling them, and without converting the optical packets into electronic packets. Programmable delay lines are use which delay the output of each packet for a programmable amount which may be re-programmed while the packet is being delayed by the programmable delay line. Programmable delay line controllers manages the delays imposed by the programmable delay lines so as to have a look-ahead phase during which information about the packets is gathered and a shift phase during which the sequence of packets is shifted to match an output sequence.

Packet switch with separate look ahead, computation, and shift phases

Systems and techniques to optically boost a router. In general, in one implementation, the technique includes: receiving an optical signal defining a packet of data, initiating electronic routing of the optical packet, and initiating optical routing of the optical packet. The optical routing involves determining forwarding information based on a routing field in the optical packet, and if optical forwarding is available, terminating the electronic routing of the packet before completion of the electronic routing, and forwarding the optical signal, which defines the packet, based on the determined forwarding information.

Optically boosted router

Growing community of inventors

Palos Verdes Estates, CA, United States of America

Joseph Bannister