Non-blocking, scalable optical router architecture and method

A system and method for providing non-blocking routing of optical data through a telecommunications router that allows full utilization of available capacity. The router includes a number of data links (20) that carry optical data packets to and from an optical router (50). The optical router (50) includes a number of ingress edge units (60) coupled to an optical switch core (30) coupled further to a number of egress edge units (160). The ingress edge units (60) receive the optical data packets from the data links (20) and aggregate the optical data packets into "super packets" where each super packet is to be routed to a particular destination egress edge unit (160). The super packets are sent from the ingress edge units (60) to an optical switch fabric (70) within the optical switch core (30) that routes each super packet through the optical switch fabric (70) to the super packet's particular destination egress edge unit (160) in a non-blocking manner (i.e., without contention or data loss through the optical switch fabric (70)). This routing is managed by a core controller (40) that monitors flow information at each ingress edge unit (60) to control the super packet generation and transmission to the optical switch fabric (70) and schedules each super packet to exit the optical switch fabric (70) so as to avoid contention among the plurality of super packets in the transmission between the optical switch fabric (70) and the egress edge units (160). The egress edge units (160) receive the super packets, de-aggregate the super packets into the original optical data packets, and transmit the optical data packets to the data lines (20).