Patent ID: 9575259
Date: 2017-02-21
CPC Classifications: G02B

Claim:
1. An optical cross-connect connecting a series of optical input ports to a series of optical output ports, the cross-connect including: at least a first group of input/output port arrays located at spatially separated locations in at least a first horizontal dimension; each of the input/output port arrays having a series of optical input/output ports disposed horizontally and configured to project or receive optical signals; a plurality of steering elements configured to selectively steer optical signals along switching trajectories between the input and output ports by tilting vertically at predetermined inter-array angles to select a desired input/output port array and by tilting horizontally at predetermined intra-array angles to select a desired input/output port within the desired input/output port array; an angle-to-offset conversion unit for converting optical signals propagating at the horizontal intra-array angles to corresponding spatial offset signals in the horizontal dimension; and an optical interconnect having a series of input/output regions, each of the input/output regions being specific to a corresponding input/output port array and the input/output regions being divided vertically into elongated switching rows, each input/output region receiving spatial offset signals from the angle-to-offset conversion unit and optically interconnecting each spatial offset signal from a first input/output region to a second input/output region with predetermined interconnects interconnecting the input/output regions based on the inter-array angles of the spatial offset signals.