Optical network and switch control method for use in the optical network

Abstract

In a method of controlling a switching operation of an optical network for use in connection between an optical transmitter and an optical receiver through an optical switch is controlled by a switch controller, the optical receiver is given through the optical switch a sequence of combined optical signals which is formed by combining a sequence of optical signals with an additional sequence of optical signals. The additional sequence of the optical signals may be either a sequence of optical signals sent to another optical receiver or a sequence of dummy optical signals. The combined optical signal sequence has a time interval which is defined between two adjacent ones of the combined optical signals and which is shorter than a predetermined time interval of, for example, 1 millisecond. Such a combined optical signal sequence serves to avoid occurrence of an optical surge appearing when the time interval is longer than the predetermined time interval.

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