Patent ID: 7522836

Claim:
An optical processing system comprising: an input interface comprising at least one or more light sources capable of generating a multiple wavelength optical signal; a switching element coupled to the input interface, the switching element operable to receive the multiple wavelength optical signal and to generate a switching element optical output signal, wherein the switching element comprises: an optical signal separator operable to separate the multiple wavelength optical signal into one or more optical signal wavelengths; a plurality of semiconductor devices located on a single semiconductor substrate, the plurality of semiconductor devices capable of performing an optical switching operation on at least one of the optical signal wavelengths; a controller operable to generate a control signal that affects the optical switching operation performed by one or more of the plurality of semiconductor devices; and a plurality of optical fibers forming at least a portion of a star configuration; and a plurality of output interfaces coupled to respective ones or more of the plurality of optical fibers, wherein the star configuration is capable of communicating the switching element optical output signal from the switching element to at least one of the plurality of output interfaces, and wherein at least one of the plurality of output interfaces comprises: a synchronized light source operable to generate a modulated light signal based at least in part on a portion of the switching element optical output signal, wherein the modulated light signal is at a different wavelength than the switching element optical output signal and wherein the synchronized light source operates to substantially avoid interference between the modulated light signal and another modulated light signal generated by another one of the plurality of output interfaces.