Optical packet switching system and method for controlling the peak power

An optical packet switching system includes an optical packet transmitter, an optical packet switching apparatus, an optical amplifier, an optical packet receiver, an information gathering unit, and a peak power calculation unit. The information gathering unit collects the packet density, time-averaged power and extinction ratio from the optical packet transmitter, collects the packet density, time-averaged power and noise figure from the optical amplifier, collects the packet density, time-averaged power, switch on/off time ratio and extinction ratio from the optical packet switching apparatus, and collects the packet density and time-averaged power from the optical packet receiver. The peak power calculation unit calculates the peak power of an optical packet signal outputted from each apparatus/device based on the collected information. The device control unit control each apparatus/device based on the calculated peak power such that the optical packet signal having a peak power according to a predetermined optical level diagram is outputted.