Patent ID: 8503879

Claim:
A system, comprising: a. one or more electrical switches to transfer data in a data center network; b. one or more optical switching groups coupled to each electrical switch, each switching group having one or more server racks, each server rack coupled to a top of rack (TOR) switch and an optical transceiver coupled to the TOR switch; c. an optical switching unit (OSU) coupled to the one or more optical switching groups; d. an optical power coupler (OPC) coupled to the optical transceiver to receive incoming optical signals from the server racks; e. an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) coupled to the OPC to separate optical signals at different wavelengths to different output ports; and f. a wavelength converter coupled to the OSU, wherein the OSU comprises an optical switching matrix, wherein the OSU directs an incoming signal on a predetermined wavelength to a corresponding optical receiver that communicates on the predetermined wavelength, and wherein if no optical receiver on a destination server rack matches the predetermined wavelength of the incoming signal, the predetermined wavelength of the incoming signal is changed to match one of the wavelengths of the optical receivers on the destination rack, and redirected back to the optical switching matrix for signal routing.