An optical signal manipulation system including: a plurality of ports (83, 85, 93, 95), each for carrying a respective optical beam (81, 89) to be manipulated, each optical beam including a plurality of independent wavelength channels; wherein the ports (83, 85, 93, 95) are divided into a first group for carrying the first subset of beams corresponding to a first optical device (Source A) and a second group of ports for carrying the second subset of beams corresponding to a second optical device (Source B); and the system comprises a polarizing module (97, 99) for polarizing the first subset of beams into a first polarization state and for polarizing the second subset of beams into a second polarization state orthogonal to the first state; a beam confining module (101, 108) for spatially confining the first subset of beams with the second subset of beams along a direction of propagation to a predefined spatial offset in the first dimension; a wavelength dispersion element for spatially separating the plurality of wavelength channels of a first subset of beams from the optical beams (81, 89) and a second subset of beams from the optical beams (81, 89) in the direction of a first dimension to produce a plurality of dispersed wavelength channels; a separation element for spatially separating the plurality of dispersed wavelength channels of the first and second subsets in the direction of a second dimension orthogonal to the first dimension; and a processing device including a series of independent wavelength processing elements for separately processing each of the separated wavelengths of the first and second subsets, with wavelength channels of the first subset being processed independently of wavelength channels of the second subset at a location spatially separated in the second dimension. a plurality of ports (83, 85, 93, 95), each for carrying a respective optical beam (81, 89) to be manipulated, each optical beam including a plurality of independent wavelength channels; wherein the ports (83, 85, 93, 95) are divided into a first group for carrying the first subset of beams corresponding to a first optical device (Source A) and a second group of ports for carrying the second subset of beams corresponding to a second optical device (Source B); and the system comprises a polarizing module (97, 99) for polarizing the first subset of beams into a first polarization state and for polarizing the second subset of beams into a second polarization state orthogonal to the first state; a beam confining module (101, 108) for spatially confining the first subset of beams with the second subset of beams along a direction of propagation to a predefined spatial offset in the first dimension; a wavelength dispersion element for spatially separating the plurality of wavelength channels of a first subset of beams from the optical beams (81, 89) and a second subset of beams from the optical beams (81, 89) in the direction of a first dimension to produce a plurality of dispersed wavelength channels; a separation element for spatially separating the plurality of dispersed wavelength channels of the first and second subsets in the direction of a second dimension orthogonal to the first dimension; and a processing device including a series of independent wavelength processing elements for separately processing each of the separated wavelengths of the first and second subsets, with wavelength channels of the first subset being processed independently of wavelength channels of the second subset at a location spatially separated in the second dimension.