Patent ID: 7274873

Claim:
An optical transmission system comprising: at least one optical transmitter configured to transmit at least one optical signal channel via an optical signal along an optical path; at least one optical receiver configured to receive at least one optical signal channel from said optical path; and, an optical switching device disposed along said optical path including: a demultiplexer configured to demultiplex the optical signal provided to an input port into a plurality of signal groups, each signal group including at least one signal channel, a switch element configurable to pass or prevent the passage of at least one of the signal groups and variably control the optical power of the signal groups passing though said switch element, and a multiplexer configured to multiplex the signal groups passed by said switch element into an output signal through an output port in optical communication with said optical receiver, wherein said optical switching device imparts a substantially uniform optical loss across the at least one optical signal channels; a distributor connected along the optical path at an input port of the demultiplexer; at least one drop receiver connected to an output port of the distributor; a combiner connected along the optical oath at an output port of the multiplexer; and at least one add transmitter connect to an input port of the combiner.