Patent ID: 7106966

Claim:
A photonic switch for a DWDM network comprising: a plurality l of input ports and a plurality l′ of output ports; an optical demultiplexer for separating a wavelength λ k from an input multichannel signal S in (k,i) received on an input port i of said plurality of input ports, and for directing said wavelength λ k on an assigned ingress area along a predetermined input path; a switching block for directing said wavelength λ k along an optical path from said assigned ingress area to an associated egress area selected from a plurality of egress areas; an optical multiplexer for directing said wavelength λ k from said associated egress area along a predetermined output path, and for combining said wavelength λ k into an output multichannel signal S out (k′,i′), transmitted on an output port i′ of said plurality of output ports; wherein at least one of the optical demultiplexer and optical multiplexer includes a diffraction grating; wherein said switching block comprises a three-dimensional switch fabric for cross-connecting said wavelength λ k from said input multichannel signal S in (k,i) to said output multichannel signal S out (k′,i′) and a control unit for selecting said associated egress area and for configuring said switch fabric to direct said wavelength along an adaptable path between said assigned ingress area and said associated egress area and, wherein said switch fabric comprises an input matrix with K rows and l columns of input optical switching elements defining a first plane, and an output matrix with K′ rows and l′ columns of output optical switching elements defining a second plane; wherein each input port of said plurality of input ports is associated with a column of said input matrix and each wavelength arriving on said each input port is associated with a row of said input matrix, and wherein each output port of said plurality of output ports is associated with a column of said output matrix and each wavelength transmitted at each said output port is associated with a row of said output matrix and wherein said adaptable path transits said switch fabric such that an input optical switching element of said input matrix redirects said wavelength away from the first plane towards the second plane to an output optical switching element of said output matrix.