Patent ID: 8724936

Claim:
An optical fabric comprising: an optical backplane of the optical fabric, the optical backplane configured to divert a portion of a given optical signal broadcast by a broadcasting node on a given optical communication path to an optical communication port of an optical mezzanine card, and the optical backplane being configured to direct another optical signal generated by the optical communication port of the mezzanine card onto another optical communication path, wherein the given and the another optical communication paths are optically coupled to two or more receiving nodes; a given optical element comprising: a beamsplitter configured to split an optical signal generated by the broadcasting node into first and second substantially identical optical signals; and a mirror optically coupled to the given optical communication path and configured to receive and reflect a given optical signal of the first and second substantially identical optical signals provided by the beamsplitter and to broadcast substantially the entire given optical signal onto the given optical communication path to provide a broadcast optical signal; and one or more optical elements optically coupled to the given optical communication path and configured to divert a portion of the broadcast optical signal toward two or more of the two or more receiving nodes.