Patent ID: 7110638

Claim:
An optical node apparatus, comprising: a through path coupler having at least first and second outputs, the through path coupler configured to optically connect to an input port for receiving an input optical signal and configured to provide a first through optical signal on the first output and a second through optical signal on the second output; a first optical filter for optically connecting to the first output port and configured to filter the first through optical signal; and a selective connector configured for enabling selective optical connection to an output of the first optical filter; wherein the second output port is initially left unconnected and is configured to accept a second optical filter and the selective connector is configured to switch optical connection to an output of the second optical filter without any substantial disruption to an operation of the optical node apparatus; wherein the optical node apparatus is reconfigurable while in-service and comprises connections to permit an in-service upgrade from a broadcast architecture to a spectrally blocking architecture, permitting spectral wavelength reuse in subsequent portions of a network; wherein the optical node apparatus comprises connections to permit in-service maintenance; and wherein the in-service upgrade and the in-service maintenance are made without requiring that the optical node be shut down and without service disruptions.