A Look-ahead Contention Resolution ("LCR") technique for application in burst switching networks is described. The LCR technique takes advantage of the existing separation of data bursts and their BHPs in time (offset or ".tau."). Through a look-ahead window ("LAW") W time units wide, a network scheduler can process a group of BHPs prior to the arrival of their respective bursts and gain a collective knowledge of the state of the switch in the futures, rather than processing a single slot .tau. time units in the future.