Patent ID: 6871021
Filing Date: 2005-03-22
Classification: H04Q

Abstract:
1. A switch for optical signals, comprising: a plurality of wavelength division demultiplexers (WDDs), each having an input port and a plurality of output ports; a plurality of wavelength division multiplexers (WDMs), each having an output port and a plurality of input ports; an optical switching core having a plurality of input ports at which optical signals enter said core and a plurality of output ports at which optical signals exit said core, a subset of the input ports of said core being connected to the output ports of said WDDs and a subset of the output ports of said core being connected to the input ports of said WDMs, said core being capable of establishing photonic connections between said subset of its input ports and said subset of its output ports in response to an indication of desired connections; a plurality of optical intensity controllers, each connected to the input port of a corresponding one of said WDDs and adapted to vary the intensity of an input multi-carrier optical signal entering the input port of said corresponding one of said WDDs; a plurality of optical splitters, each connected to the output port of a corresponding one of said WDMs and adapted to tap a fraction of the intensity of an output multi-carrier optical signal exiting the output port of said corresponding one of said WDMs; and a connection verification unit connected to said optical intensity controllers and to said optical splitters, said connection verification unit being operable to: