Patent ID: 11876606
Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) comprising:
a plurality of line cards, wherein each one of the plurality of line cards is configured to receive a plurality of wavelength channels from an optical link in an optical network;
a plurality of add/drop cards, wherein each one of the plurality of add/drop cards includes a primary path and a secondary path; and
a controller configured to:
select a set of wavelength channels from the plurality of wavelength channels,
determine if there is any contention between the set of wavelength channels,
direct a first subset of wavelength channels from the set of wavelength channels that do not have contentions to the primary path, and
direct a second subset of wavelength channels from the set of wavelength channels that have contentions to the secondary path,

wherein:
the primary path includes a plurality of M1×1 multiplexer wavelength select switches (WSSs) and a plurality of 1×M2 demultiplexer WSSs coupled in Colorless, Directionless (CD) mode of operation, M1 and M2 being integer values; and
the secondary path includes a plurality of N1×1 multiplexer WSSs and a plurality of 1×N2 demultiplexer WSSs coupled in Colorless, Directionless (CD) mode of operation, N1 and N2 being integer values.