Patent ID: 8023821
Filing Date: 2011-09-20
Classification: H04J

Abstract:
1. An optical transport network, comprising: a first network endpoint comprising a first network router for routing traffic through at least one intermediate network node to a destination network node, the first network router comprising a plurality of first hot-pluggable interfaces; a plurality of first long-reach hot-pluggable optical transceivers physically plugged into the plurality of first hot-pluggable interfaces of the first network router for converting between first electrical signals from the first network router and wavelength band signals; the first network router being configured for selecting a subset of the first long-reach hot-pluggable optical transceivers for converting a subset of the first electrical signals to a plurality of first wavelength band signals, the selecting being based on a route to be taken by the plurality of first wavelength band signals through the network; a WDM multiplexer directly connected to the subset of the first long-reach hot-pluggable optical transceivers for receiving the plurality of first wavelength band signals from the first long-reach hot-pluggable optical transceivers and combining the first wavelength band signals to form a multiplexed DWDM signal; a WDM demultiplexer for receiving the multiplexed DWDM signal and separating the multiplexed DWDM signal into a plurality of second wavelength band signals; a network node comprising a second network router, the second network router comprising a plurality of second hot-pluggable interfaces; a plurality of second long-reach hot-pluggable optical transceivers physically plugged into the plurality of second hot-pluggable interfaces of the second network router, the plurality of second long-reach hot-pluggable optical transceivers being directly connected to the WDM demultiplexer for converting between the plurality of second wavelength band signals and second electrical signals; the first network router further being configured to provision additional wavelength band signals of the multiplexed DWDM signal, without inserting and without activating wavelength selective devices at points between the plurality of first long-reach hot-pluggable optical transceivers and the plurality of second long-reach hot-pluggable optical transceivers.