Patent ID: 7174066

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a switch fabric to connect different ones of a first plurality of ports of said switch fabric with different ones of a second plurality of ports of said switch fabric; a plurality of photonic detectors to detect the presence or absence of an optical signal, said plurality of photonic detectors having a plurality of input ports; a variable optical attenuator having a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports; a tap including a plurality of input ports coupled to said second plurality of ports of the switch fabric, a first plurality of output ports coupled to said plurality of input ports of the variable optical attenuator, and a second plurality of output ports coupled to said plurality of input ports of said plurality of photonic detectors such that each of said plurality of photonic detectors is optically coupled to a different one of said second plurality of ports; and a plurality of wavelength demultiplexers each having an input to receive an incoming optical signal from an optical fiber, wherein each of said optical signals is capable of including one or more wavelengths, wherein each of said plurality of wavelength demultiplexers includes a plurality of outputs to carry a different one of said plurality of wavelengths, and wherein the ones of said plurality of outputs of said plurality of wavelength demultiplexer to carry the same one of said plurality of wavelengths are optically coupled to different ports of said first plurality of ports.