Multi directional multiplexer

An optical signal manipulation system for switching wavelength channels between M common-port optical fibers and N add/drop optical fibers, the system including:

• a plurality (M) of common-port optical fibers, each configured for transmitting an optical signal including a plurality of wavelength channels, said common-port optical fibers being spatially separated at least in a switching dimension;
• a plurality (N) of add/drop optical fibers, each configured for receiving one or more individual wavelength channels, said add/drop optical fibers being spatially separated at least in the switching dimension;
• a wavelength dispersion element for simultaneously spatially separating said wavelength channels from said optical signals in a dispersion dimension perpendicular to said switching dimension;
• an optical power element for focusing each said spatially separated wavelength channel in said dispersion dimension;
• a wavelength manipulation element including a two-dimensional array of independently drivable elements divided into M separate processing regions, each processing region separately manipulating each of the focused spatially separated wavelength channels of a corresponding optical signal to selectively independently steer the wavelength channels a first angle in the switching dimension relative to a respective originating common-port optical fiber to one of N steering elements;
• and
• a plurality (N) of steering elements, each for independently selectively steering the wavelength channels at a second angle in the switching dimension relative to an associated add/drop optical fiber such that said wavelength channels are coupled to said associated add/drop optical fibers;
• wherein first angle is less than said second angle.

An optical signal manipulation system including:

• a series of optical input ports each for projecting a corresponding optical input signal, said signals including a predetermined series of wavelength channels;
• a translation unit for translating the relative spatial position of the optical input port to a corresponding relative angular projection of the ports optical input signal;
• an optical power element for focusing the optical energy of said optical input signals;
• and
• an optical dispersion system for spatially dividing out wavelength channels of each optical input signal;
• whereby the system produces an intermediate output of a series of spatially separated columns for each optical input signal, with each column having its wavelength dispersed along the column;
• and
• whereby the intermediate output is projected onto a wavelength manipulation element for independently steering the wavelength channels to one of a plurality of output ports.