Patent ID: 8625994
Filing Date: 2014-01-07
Classification: H04J,H04Q

Abstract:
1. A directionless reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer, comprising: an ingress device receiving a plurality of wavelengths from an input connection, wherein the ingress device is configured to provide one or more of the plurality of wavelengths on a first output and a second output; a splitter connected to the first output of the ingress device, wherein the splitter comprises a plurality of stages, wherein the splitter is configured to split the one or more of the plurality of wavelengths from the first output into multiple copies of the one or more of the plurality of wavelengths, and wherein the multiple copies are provided on a plurality of outputs; a switch connected to the plurality of outputs from the splitter and a plurality of tunable filters, wherein the switch is configured to switch each of the multiple copies to one or more of the plurality of tunable filters, wherein each of the plurality of tunable filters is configured to tune to a wavelength passband to provide a single output of the plurality of wavelengths; an egress device receiving the second output, wherein the egress device and the ingress device form a plurality of degrees comprising more than two degrees; at least one transceiver for local add/drop communicatively coupled to the switch, wherein the at least one transceiver comprises a transmitter directly communicatively coupled to the switch and a receiver communicatively coupled to the switch through a tunable filter of the plurality of tunable filters, wherein the transmitter is configured to selectively transmit to any of the plurality of degrees at the egress device based on the switch and the receiver is configured to receive any of the plurality of wavelengths from any of the plurality of degrees at the ingress device based on the switch and the tunable filter.