Patent ID: 7116904

Claim:
A wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) optical communications system, comprising: (a) a plurality of transmission units, each comprising: a variable wavelength setting unit which varies the wavelength of an outgoing optical signal according to an external command and provides an output wavelength description indicating which wavelengths are supported, an optical signal transmitter which transmits the outgoing optical signal with the wavelength set by said variable wavelength setting unit, and an optical signal receiver which receives an incoming optical signal with a single particular wavelength, the incoming optical signal having been produced through wavelength-division multiplexing and de-multiplexing processes; (b) a WDM unit, comprising: a WDM controller which controls multiplexing and de-multiplexing of optical signals, a plurality of optical input ports; a plurality of optical output ports; an optical multiplexer coupled to the plurality of optical input ports for combining a plurality of incoming optical signals with different wavelengths, and an optical de-multiplexer coupled to the plurality of optical output ports for splitting the output of the optical multiplexer into a plurality of outgoing optical signals with different wavelengths, thereby supplying each of the optical output ports with an outgoing optical signal with a particular signal wavelength; (c) a monitoring station, comprising: an administration controller which manages administrative data concerning connections and operations of said transmission units, and an optical cross-connect controller which controls optical cross-connects in said WDM unit by sending the external command to said variable wavelength setting unit to set up connections between said plurality of transmission units according to the administrative data managed by said administration controller.