Apparatus and method for scheduling transmission of data bursts in an OBS network are described. One embodiment is a router in an OBS network, the router comprising a grouper module for collecting a group of BHPs arriving during a BHP collecting period and classifying each BHP of the group of BHPs into corresponding baskets depending on the data channel scheduling window of its corresponding data burst; a classifier and channel assignment module for assigning data bursts to appropriate data channels; and a channel scheduler for constructing an interval graph representing data bursts corresponding to BHPs classified in a single one of the baskets having overlapping segments on each data channel as adjacent vertices and scheduling data bursts on each data channel based on a process that finds a maximum number of non-adjacent vertices on the interval graph.