Adjustable Multiple-Channel Optical Switch
AssigneeAlcatel Lucent
InventorChristopher Richard Doerr
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus includes a wavelength-selective switch having an optical demultiplexer having N optical outputs, a first optical multiplexer having N optical inputs, a second optical multiplexer having N optical inputs, and a plurality of controllable 1×P optical switches. Integer P is greater than or equal to 2. Each of the optical switches is connected to a corresponding one of the optical outputs of the optical demultiplexer and is connected to corresponding ones of the optical inputs of the respective first and second optical multiplexers. The optical AWG demultiplexer has an optical AWG sampling coefficient of one or more for light with a wavelength in the optical telecommunication C-band, L-band, or S-band.
Claims16
An apparatus comprising a wavelength-selective optical switch that comprises:
- an optical AWG demultiplexer having N optical outputs;
- a first optical AWG multiplexer having N optical inputs;
- a second optical AWG multiplexer having N optical inputs;
- and
- a plurality of controllable 1×P optical switches, each of the optical switches being connected to a corresponding one of the optical outputs of the optical AWG demultiplexer and being connected to corresponding ones of the optical inputs of the respective first and second optical AWG multiplexers, the P being greater than or equal to 2;
- and
- wherein the optical AWG demultiplexer has an optical AWG sampling coefficient of one or more for light with a wavelength in the optical telecommunication C-band, L-band, or S-band.
A method comprising:
- demultiplexing a sequence of adjacent wavelength-channels of a data-modulated optical signal into a set of disjoint wavelength samples with an optical AWG demultiplexer, each of the wavelength samples including a portion of one of the wavelength-channels in the optical signal;
- routing light of each individual set to a selected one of P optical AWG multiplexers, the routing using a separate controllable 1×P optical switch to route the light of each of the wavelength samples, the P being greater than or equal to 2;
- and
- rerouting a part of the optical signal of, at least, one of the sets to a different selected one of the P optical AWG multiplexers, the rerouting using one of the controllable 1×P optical switches to reroute light of each wavelength sample of the part of the optical signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.