Hybrid packet/time slotted circuit switched scheme (HPTS)

In the OpMiGua hybrid network, whether packets follow a circuit or a packet path is decided on a packet-by-packet basis. Packets following a circuit are given absolute priority with no packet loss or jitter. Packets following a packet switched path are statistically multiplexed. Circuits are wavelength-paths in a Wavelength Routed Optical Network (WRON), resulting in bandwidth granularity of a wavelength. In this paper, we propose the HPTS scheme, enabling a higher granularity of the OpMiGua guaranteed service (GST) circuit paths by employing time-slots. Nodes sharing a wavelength path are allocated time-slots according to their bandwidth needs. Best effort traffic accesses unused bandwidth within any time-slot, enabling high bandwidth utilization. Finally, the proposed network schemepsilas compatibility with GMPLS is briefly discussed.