Apparatus, system and method for a tunable optical filter and channel dropping de-multiplexer

A tunable optical filter comprising:

• a first optical switch having a single first optical port and a plurality of second optical ports;
• a plurality of band pass filters, each one of the band pass filters optically coupled to a respective second optical port;
• and
• a second optical switch having a plurality of third optical ports and a single fourth optical port, each third optical port optically coupled to a respective band pass filter, wherein the first optical switch delivers a plurality of optical channels to a selected one of the band pass filters, the selected band pass filter transmitting a single selected optical channel to a third port.

A tunable optical filter comprising:

• an optical switch having a single first optical port and a plurality of second optical ports;
• a graded band pass filter optically coupled to the plurality of second optical ports;
• and
• an optical multiplexer having a plurality of inputs and a single output, the plurality of inputs optically coupled to the graded band pass filter, wherein the optical switch delivers a plurality of optical channels to a selected portion of the graded band pass filter, the selected portion of the graded band pass filter transmitting a single selected optical channel to an input of the optical multiplexer.

A tunable optical filter comprising:

• a first optical switch having a single first optical port and a plurality of second optical ports;
• a graded band pass filter optically coupled to the plurality of second optical ports;
• and
• a second optical switch having a plurality of third optical ports and a single fourth optical port, the plurality of third optical ports optically coupled to the graded band pass filter, wherein the first optical switch delivers a plurality of optical channels to a selected portion of the graded band pass filter, the selected portion of the graded band pass filter transmitting a single selected optical channel to a third port.

A method for a tunable optical filter comprising:

• receiving a plurality of optical channels at a first port of an optical switch;
• routing the plurality of optical channels to a selected one of a plurality of second ports of the optical switch;
• routing the plurality of optical channels to a band pass filter optically coupled to the selected second port;
• transmitting a selected optical channel of the plurality of optical channels to an input port of an optical multiplexer;
• and
• routing the selected optical channel to an output of the optical multiplexer.

A method for a tunable optical filter comprising:

• receiving a plurality of optical channels at a first port of an optical switch;
• routing the plurality of optical channels to a selected one of a plurality of second ports of the optical switch;
• routing the plurality of optical channels to a band pass filter optically coupled to the selected second port;
• transmitting a selected optical channel of the plurality of optical channels to a selected one of a plurality of third ports of a second optical switch;
• and
• routing the selected optical channel to a fourth port of the second optical switch.

A method for a tunable optical filter comprising:

• receiving a first plurality of optical channels at a first port of a first optical switch and a second plurality of optical channels at a first port of a second optical switch;
• routing the first plurality of optical channels to a selected one of a plurality of second ports of the first optical switch and the second plurality of optical channels to a selected one of a plurality of second ports of the second optical switch;
• routing the first plurality of optical channels and the second plurality of channels to a band pass filter optically coupled to the selected second port of the first optical switch and to the selected second port of the second optical switch;
• transmitting a first selected optical channel of the first plurality of optical channels to the selected second port of the second optical switch and another selected optical channel of the second plurality of optical channels to the selected second port of the first optical switch;
• and
• routing the first selected optical channel to the first port of the second optical switch and the other selected optical channel to the first port of the first optical switch.