Patent ID: 7245829

Claim:
An optical network comprising: a transmit edge element having a plurality of tunable optical transmitters, an optical switch having separate inputs each optically connected to an output of one of said plurality of tunable optical transmitters, a optical multiplexer having separate inputs each optically connected to a separate output of said optical switch, and the output of said optical multiplexer constituting the output of said transmit edge element; a receive edge element having an optical demultiplexer wherein the input of said optical demultiplexer constitutes the input of said receive edge element, an optical switch having separate inputs optically connected to the separate outputs of said optical demultiplexer; and a plurality of optical receivers each optically connected to a separate output of said second optical switch; an optical power splitter, optically connected to the output of said optical transmit edge element, said optical power splitter having a plurality of outputs; a n:1 optical switch wherein n is of a quantity sufficient to accommodate said plurality of outputs of said optical power splitter; said plurality of outputs of said optical power splitter are optically connected to separate inputs of said n:1 optical switch; and the output of said n:1 optical switch is optically connected to the input of said receive edge element.