Patent ID: 6792207
Filing Date: 2004-09-14
Classification: H04J,H04Q

Abstract:
An optical wavelength division-multiplexing (WDM) network for communicating WDM channels to local destinations via a plurality of nodes and interconnecting optical fibers, the nodes including at least one transit node and at least one hub node, comprising:a transit switch within said transit node having a fiber-routing portion (FR) and a wavelength-routing portion (WR), the fiber-routing portion including a first group of FR inputs coupled to first network optical fibers and a first group of FR outputs coupled to second network optical fibers, the wavelength-routing portion positioned in a feedback path between a second group of FR outputs and a second group of FR inputs, the fiber-routing portion being capable of switching a WDM comb from any of the first and second FR inputs to any of the first and second FR outputs, quantities of the first and second groups of FR outputs of the transit switch being selected such that CFR1>CWR1, CFR1 being a switching capacity of the fiber-routing portion, CWR1 being a switching capacity of the wavelength-routing portion; and a hub switch within said hub node having at least a wavelength-routing portion including a first group of WR inputs arranged to receive first orders of WDM channels directly from some of third network fibers and a first group of WR outputs arranged to transmit second orders of WDM channels to local destination fibers.