Patent ID: 8606103

Claim:
A network comprising: at least one host device having an interface card connected to a backplane of said host device, wherein said interface card comprises at least one cage for receiving a pluggable module; wherein said pluggable module performs signal processing of data comprised of at least one wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) channel transported via at least one optical fibre connected to said pluggable module in the optical domain, wherein said pluggable module performs as well traffic management of the data, wherein said traffic management of the data is performed within the pluggable module either in the electrical domain or in the optical domain; wherein said pluggable module comprises at least one of an optical blocking filter, an optical add drop multiplexer filter, a variable optical attenuator, a bidirectional optical amplifier, an optical switching device, a dispersion compensation unit, an optical power splitter, an optical loop device, and an optical connection device.