Patent ID: 7672587

Claim:
An optical switching device for selectively switching channels carried by respective wavelengths of at least one optical multiplex signal to respective output ports selected as a function of a control signal, comprising: an input stage having at least one broadcast module able to provide at a plurality of outputs duplicates of an optical multiplex signal; an output stage comprising a plurality of programmable multiplexer modules each having inputs associated with the at least one broadcast module, the output of each programmable multiplexer module constituting one of said output ports, and an intermediate stage connecting each programmable multiplexer module input that is associated with the at least one broadcast module to an output of the at least one broadcast module associated with that input, wherein the at least one broadcast module includes a programmable demultiplexer module having at least one transit output and at least one selection output and a star coupler having first and second inputs and n outputs constituting outputs of the at least one broadcast module, a transit output is connected to said first input of the star coupler, and an input and an output of a processing device are respectively connected to a selection output and to said second input of said star coupler.