Optoelectronic switch with reduced fibre count

An N-dimensional optoelectronic switch for transferring a signal from a source external client device to a destination external client device, the optoelectronic switch including:

• a plurality of leaf switch assemblies arranged in an N-dimensional array, each leaf switch assembly in the array having an associated N-tuple of co-ordinates giving the location of that leaf switch in each of the N dimensions, wherein each leaf switch assembly is a member of N sub-arrays of leaf switch assemblies, each of the N sub-arrays of which a given leaf switch assembly is a member being associated with a respective one of the N dimensions, and each sub-array having an associated spine rack unit,
• wherein:
• each leaf switch assembly includes:
• a leaf switch having N sets of fabric ports, a set of fabric ports associated with switching in each of the N dimensions, each set of fabric ports including a first fabric port and a second fabric port, and
• a fabric port multiplexer associated with the leaf switch, arranged to combine a first signal from the first fabric port of a first set of fabric ports of the N sets of fabric ports and a second signal from the second fabric port of the first set of fabric ports onto a first connection, in the form of an outgoing first multiplexed signal;
• each spine rack unit includes:
• a plurality of spine switches including a first spine switch having a fabric port and a second spine switch having a fabric port, and
• a demultiplexer arranged to separate an incoming multiplexed signal received from the first connection into the first signal and the second signal, the first signal directed towards the fabric port of the first spine switch and the second signal directed to the fabric port of the second spine switch;
• each leaf switch in a given leaf switch assembly is able to direct a signal from a fabric port associated with a first dimension, towards a fabric port associated with a second dimension;
• and
• N is an integer greater than 1.