Priority-based lambda scheduler

Optical networks provide a new dimension to meet the demands of exponentially growing traffic. Optical packet switching requires a good switch architecture, which eliminates the O/E/O conversion as much as possible. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) provides a breakthrough to exploit the huge bandwidth of the optical fiber. Different applications have different requirements, which necessitate employing differentiated services. This paper presents the idea of a priority-based /spl lambda/-scheduler, where the packets are differentiated into different classes and services are provided accordingly. For example, class 0 can correspond to non-real-time applications like email and ftp, while class 1 can correspond to real-time audio and video communications. The architecture is based on that of the /spl lambda/-scheduler and hence it has the added advantage of reduced component cost by using WDM internally.