Optical switching apparatus

An optical switch device provided in a node device constituting a network and having a plurality of optical input ports and a plurality of optical output ports, comprising:

• a high-speed add/drop optical switch composed of a plurality of optical switches, the optical switch having an optical waveguide structure made of a material whose refractive index or absorption coefficient changes on the order of nanoseconds, and the optical switch changing the refractive index or the absorption coefficient to perform switching of both Optical-Circuit-Switching (OCS) optical signals and Optical-Packet-Switching (OPS) optical signals and
• a plurality of circulators connected to an input port and an output port of the high-speed add/drop optical switch, wherein
• the node device is a Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) node device having a wavelength selective switch,
• the high-speed add/drop optical switch is arranged after the wavelength selective switch and includes:
• a first optical switch unit composed of a plurality of optical switches that switches the OCS optical signals and the OPS optical signals to a first preset optical output port and perform an add/drop process between the OCS optical signals and the OPS optical signals;
• and
• a second optical switch unit composed of a plurality of optical switches that switches the OPS optical signals to the first preset optical output port of the first optical switch unit and performs an add/drop process on the OPS optical signals,
• wherein the first optical switch unit switches the OPS optical signals to a second preset optical port of the second optical switch unit.