Abstract: The invention provides a control layer for an Optical Burst Switch (OBS) system, said system comprising at least one stage configured with a closed optical burst switch addressing scheme and one or more ports for sending or receiving data packets. The control layer comprises a control addressing scheme independent of the closed optical addressing scheme and means to provide interconnectivity for each port with every other port. In one embodiment there is provided a closed optical burst switch ring network. The control layer encapsulates or maps the optical data at a port into an independent packet format and passes the independent packet format into a queuing system for transmission by the optical burst switch ring network to a destination port.

Abstract: The invention provides a control layer for an Optical Burst Switch (OBS) system, said system comprising at least one stage configured with a closed optical burst switch addressing scheme and one or more ports for sending or receiving data packets. The control layer comprises a control addressing scheme independent of the closed optical addressing scheme and means to provide interconnectivity for each port with every other port. In one embodiment there is provided a closed optical burst switch ring network. The control layer encapsulates or maps the optical data at a port into an independent packet format and passes the independent packet format into a queuing system for transmission by the optical burst switch ring network to a destination port.

Abstract: An arrangement for desynchronizing video signals transported in virtual containers in frames over a synchronous network comprises a feedback loop incorporating a FIFO buffer store and a tuneable oscillator adapted to provide a video line clock from demapped video information. Each virtual container is identified within a frame by a pointer introduced by the synchronous transport process, and the loop is arranged to overcome the interference of these pointers with the color subcarrier in the desynchronized signal. The loop has a bandwidth sufficiently narrow to effectively ignore phase noise created by the pointers. The oscillator frequency is controlled such that the rate of information flow around the loop is substantially constant. Video bytes are written into the buffer store and are then read at a controlled rate determined by the oscillator frequency.

Abstract: The leak rate of the primary buffer in a desynchroniser buffer at the exit from a synchronous transport network to a plesiochronous tributary is controlled in a manner such that the absolute rate of change of leak rate is maintained substantially constant during the periods in which the leak rate is increased or decreased.