Patent ID: 7613394
Filing Date: 2009-11-03
Classification: G02B,H04J,H04Q

Abstract:
1. An optical switching device which includes: a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports; a plurality of input light paths through which signal lights input via said input ports are propagated in one direction; a plurality of output light paths through which the signal lights to be output to said output ports are propagated in one direction; and an optical switch module which sets optical routes capable to be switched between said input light paths and said output light paths, comprising: a reference light generating section that generates a wavelength-variable reference light within a wavelength band of the signal light input from each of said input ports; a plurality of reference light supply sections that is disposed on each of said output light paths, to transmit the signal light which is propagated through each of said output light paths in one direction and also to give the reference light output from said reference light generating section to each of said output light paths in a direction inverse to a propagation direction of the signal light; a plurality of optical amplifiers which is disposed on each of said optical output paths positioned between said optical switch module and each of said reference light supply sections; a plurality of reference light separating sections that is disposed on each of said input light paths, to transmit the signal light which is propagated through each of said input light path in one direction and also to extract the reference light which passes through said optical switch module to be propagated through each of said input light paths in the direction inverse to the propagation direction of the signal light; a reference light power monitor which monitors the power of the reference light extracted by each of said reference light separating section; and a control circuit which acquires data relating to a loss in said optical switch module using the monitoring result by said reference light power monitor, to control said optical switch module in accordance with a control parameter which is corrected based on said acquired data.