Patent ID: 6853763

Claim:
A photonic switching apparatus comprising: primary photonic switching logic having a plurality of incoming optical interfaces, a plurality of outgoing optical interfaces, and a plurality of add/drop interfaces; and secondary photonic switching logic coupled to the primary photonic switching logic through the plurality of add/drop interfaces and having a plurality of client adaptation interfaces, wherein: the primary photonic switching logic is operably coupled to switch each of a number of optical signal channels received from the incoming optical interfaces to a selected one of the outgoing optical interfaces or to a selected one of the add/drop interfaces and to switch each of a number of optical signal channels received from the add/drop interfaces to a selected one of the outgoing optical interfaces; and the secondary photonic switching logic is operably coupled to switch each of a number of optical signal channels received from the add/drop interfaces to at least one of the client adaptation interfaces and to switch each of a number of optical signal channels received from the client adaptation interfaces to a selected one of the add/drop interfaces.