Patent ID: 8045857

Claim:
An optical switching device including a downlink optical switch section for switching a downlink signal sent from a center device, and an uplink optical switch section for switching an uplink optical signal sent from a plurality of remote devices, the optical switching device comprising: a first optical/electrical conversion section for converting the downlink optical signal sent from the center device to a first electrical signal; a first electrical/optical section for converting the first electrical signal to a downlink optical signal, and inputting the downlink optical signal to the downlink optical switch section; a branching section arranged between the first optical/electrical conversion section and the first electrical/optical section for converting, the branching section being configured to branch the first electrical signal and input a part of the first electrical signal into a control section configured to control the downlink optical switch section; a second optical/electrical conversion section for converting the uplink optical signal output from the uplink optical switch section to a second electrical signal; and a second electrical/optical section for converting the second electrical signal to an uplink optical signal, and sending the uplink optical signal to the center device.