Patent ID: 7983560

Claim:
An optical network node, comprising: a main chassis having a plurality of slots coupled to a control backplane, an optical backplane, and an electrical backplane; one or more cross-connect boards inserted into first slots of the main chassis and coupled to the control backplane and the optical backplane, the one or more cross-connect boards, each having a network ingress port and a network egress port, forming an optical cross-connect including one or more network ingress ports and egress ports; an add-drop board inserted into a second slot of the main chassis, wherein one or more channel-wavelength optical signals are capable of being added via the add-drop board onto one of the egress ports of the cross-connect board and one or more of the channel-wavelength optical signals are capable of being dropped via the add-drop board from one of the ingress ports of the cross-connect board; a transmit-receive board inserted into a third slot of the main chassis, wherein one or more transmitters generate channel-wavelength optical signals routed to one or more add-ports of the add-drop board by a multi-fiber patch cord and one or more channel-wavelength optical signals are routed from one or more drop ports of the add-drop board by a multi-fiber patch cord to a receiver of the transmit-receive board; an optical-2R board inserted into a fourth slot of the main chassis, wherein an output of the optical-2R board generates channel-wavelength optical signals routed to the one or more add-ports of the add-drop board by a multi-fiber patch cord and one or more channel-wavelength optical signals are routed from the one or more drop ports of the add-drop board by a multi-fiber patch cord to an input of the optical-2R board, wherein the optical-2R board includes one or more optical-2R devices that perform signal re-amplification and reshaping operations on the channel-wavelength optical signals without using an optical-to-electrical-to-optical (OEO) conversion; and an alien-wavelength board inserted into a fifth slot of the main chassis, separated from the add and drop board, to add and drop signals of only a single predetermined wavelength channel that are not handled by the add and drop board, wherein the signals of the single predetermined wavelength channel are added via the alien-wavelength board into one of the egress ports of the one or more cross-connect boards, and wherein the signals of the single predetermined wavelength channel are dropped via the alien-wavelength board from one of the ingress ports of the one or more cross-connect boards.