Patent ID: 7242861

Claim:
An optical wavelength multiplexing diversity communication system comprising: a plurality of optical wavelength multiplexing networks each having a plurality of nodes; and a network management system for monitoring conditions of the plurality of nodes; wherein the plurality of nodes include a first node having functions of adding and dropping optical wavelength-multiplexed signals to/from the network, a second node having a signal transferring function as well as the adding and dropping functions, and a third node having an internetworking function for interconnecting the networks, and the first, second and third nodes respectively include optical path cross-connect switches, and the network management system further includes a table for indicating status of the optical path cross-connect switches and a node fault detection condition of the first, second and third nodes, the network management system is common to each of the first, second and third nodes, and the network management system controls to set the optical path cross-connect switches according to the fault detection condition of the first, second and third nodes indicated in the table so that an optimal optical path may be obtained, and the network management system retains, in advance, shortest path information related to interconnection of the plurality of nodes, determines the optimal optical path based on the node fault detection conditions, and controls to set the optical path cross-connect switches in the first, second and third nodes to obtain the optimal optical path.