Patent ID: 7212703

Claim:
An optical wavelength selective switch, comprising: a first router block; said first router block comprising a first plurality of optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) routers, each said router having at least one optical input and a plurality of optical outputs, each said router configured to receive an optical input signal and route individual wavelength channels in said optical signal to said optical outputs; and a second router block; said second router block comprising a second plurality of optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) routers, each said router having a plurality of optical inputs and at least one optical output, each said router configured to route individual wavelength channels received on said optical inputs to a said optical output; wherein said first and second router blocks are joined to one another at an optical interface in which an array of optical waveguides in said first router block are cross-coupled to optical waveguides in said second router block; and wherein said cross-coupled first and second router blocks are configured to optically switch selected wavelength channels from within a plurality of optical inputs to said first router block into any of a plurality of optical outputs on said second router block.