In this work we present optical switches based on acousto-optical (AO) and semiconductor amplifier (SOA) devices, implemented in photonic switching optical nodes. Two basic situations are highlighted. One, a fully operational optical packet/burst switching (OPS/OBS) distributed control optical node is presented, using AO switches, with complete input-to-output switching time of ∼2μs, independent of packet/burst length. The other, a practical application for a centralized control situation is also presented, involving SOA devices, which have better performance and faster switching, with overall switching times of less than 200ns. Detailed operation and other applications are also considered. ©2009IEEE. 678681Blumenthal, D.J., Optical signal processing for Optical Packet Switching Networks (2003) IEEE Optical Communic., p. 523. , FebScott Hinton, H., Erickson, J.R., Cloonan, T.J., Tooley, F.A.P., McCormick, F.B., (2000) An Introduction to Photonic Switching Fabrics (Applications of Communications Theory), , 2nd. Ed., SpringerNew York, USARudge Barbosa, F., Maia, D., Sachs, A.C., Salvador, M.R., Optical Packet Switching Node for Metro-Access Networks Proceed. 29th. ECOC'2003, Rimini, Itália, Sept. 2003Develder, C., Stavdas, A., Demeester, P., Benchmarking and Viability Assessment of Optical Packet Switching for Metro Networks (2004) J. Lightwave Tech., 22 (11). , NovYoo, S.J., Optical Packet and Burst Switching Technologies for the Future Photonic Internet (2006) J. Lightwave Technology, 24 (12). , DecemberBonani, L.H., Rudge Barbosa, F., Moschim, E., Fully Optimized Mesh Topologies for Optical Packet Switching Network Architectures (2006) Intl. Conf. on Telecomm. - ICT'2006, , paper ON1-03, Madeira, Portugal, MaioMobilon, E., Salvador, M.R., Hardware Architecture for Optical Packet and Burst Switching Applications Interntl.Telecomm Symp. ITS'2006, Fortelaza Brasil, Sept.2006Jue, J.P., Vokkarane, V.M., (2005) Optical Burst Switched Networks, , Springer Science, Boston, USA