Patent ID: 7945165

Claim:
An optical signal synchronizer, comprising: a plurality of optical channel synchronizers, each adapted to process a respective input wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) signal to produce a respective output WDM signal, in which optical data packets corresponding to different carrier wavelengths are synchronized to each other regardless of the presence or absence of such synchronization in the input WDM signal; and a delay controller adapted to control relative optical delays introduced by different optical channel synchronizers to synchronize said respective output WDM signals to each other regardless of the presence or absence of such synchronization in the input WDM signals, wherein at least one optical channel synchronizer comprises: a first demultiplexer (DEMUX) adapted to demultiplex the input WDM signal into a plurality of individual WDM components and direct said components along one or more tunable delay paths; a first multiplexer (MUX) adapted to receive the individual WDM components from the tunable delay paths and multiplex said received WDM components to produce said output WDM signal; a plurality of tunable wavelength converters, each adapted to independently convert a carrier wavelength of a respective individual WDM component into a selected one of K wavelengths, where K is a positive integer greater than one; a first wavelength-sensitive multi-port interconnect (WSMPI) having its input ports optically coupled to said plurality of tunable wavelength converters and adapted to direct an optical signal received at an input port of said first WSMPI to one of its output ports based on the wavelength of said received optical signal; an array of fixed delay lines, each optically coupled between a respective output port of the first WSMPI and a respective input port of a second WSMPI; said second WSMPI adapted to direct an optical signal received at an input port of said second WSMPI to one of its output ports based on the wavelength of said received optical signal; and a plurality of fixed wavelength converters, each adapted to convert any of said K wavelengths back into the carrier wavelength of the individual WDM component originally received by a corresponding tunable wavelength converter.