Patent ID: 8023819

Claim:
An optical switch, comprising: a first plurality of optical ports; a second plurality of optical ports; a switching matrix optically coupling optical ports of the first plurality of optical ports to optical ports of the second plurality of optical ports; optical power detectors located at optical ports of the first plurality of optical ports and of the second plurality of optical ports; a controller configured to cause the switching matrix to decouple a first optical port of the first plurality of optical ports from a first optical port of the second plurality of optical ports and couple the first optical port of the first plurality of optical ports to a second optical port of the second plurality of optical ports responsive to an optical power detector's detecting a drop in optical power below a threshold level; and the controller is further configured to cause the switching matrix to decouple the first optical port of the first plurality of optical ports from the second optical port of the second plurality of optical ports and couple the first optical port of the first plurality of optical ports to a third optical port of the second plurality of optical ports responsive to optical power detectors at the optical port of the first plurality of optical ports and at the second optical port of the second plurality of optical ports detecting optical power below the threshold level within a designated time interval.