Abstract: A technique for selecting the offset between data bursts and their respective control packets in an optical burst switching arrangement includes: randomly generating a plurality of tokens; receiving a plurality of sequentially generated data bursts; and receiving a plurality of control packets, each control packet corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of data bursts. One of the plurality of control packets is first outputted and its corresponding respective data burst is then outputted at a time corresponding to the generation of the first of the plurality of tokens which occurs at a time in which no data burst is being outputted, the outputting of the data burst being offset from the output of its corresponding respective control packet by a time period. The average rate at which the plurality of data bursts are outputted may be equal to the reciprocal of the mean of the probability distribution used to generate the plurality of tokens.