Patent ID: 7123806

Claim:
Intelligent network element for optical networks, comprising: at least one back-plane including: a plurality of electrical transmission lines running across the back-plane; and, a plurality of electrical terminals connected to the transmission lines; a plurality of line-card slices having: electrical terminals, wherein each line-card slice is attached to the back-plane directly or in the form of a plug-in module such that the electrical terminals of the line-card slice are electrically connected to selected ones of the terminals of the back-plane such that the electrical terminals of various line-card slices are interconnected, allowing the various line card slices to communicate with each other via the electrical transmission lines in the back plane, with at least one of the line-card slices comprising: at least one optical receiver for receiving optical signals from the network, and at least one opto-electrical converter integrated in or optically connected to the optical receiver with electrical terminals, and at least one of the line-card slices comprising: at least one optical transmitter for transmitting optical signals to the network, and at least one electro-optical converter integrated in or optically connected to the optical transmitter with electrical terminals; wherein various of the electrical terminals of the back-plane or the line-card slices or both are implemented as switch terminals that provide selected and reconfigurable electrical interconnections among various of the at least one receiver, transmitter and converter from one single line-card slice or from different ones of the line-card slices using electrical switches or at least one electrical cross-connect wherein said intelligent network element provides for optical networks with arbitrary topology.