Patent ID: 7161964

Claim:
A reconfigurable ADD/DROP demultiplexer/multiplexer apparatus comprising a demultiplexer/multiplexer including a demultiplexer ( 101 A) for receiving a first multiplexed signal ( 101 A) which is demultiplexed into a first demultiplexed signal ( 103 A) and a multiplexer for receiving a second demultiplexed signal ( 203 ) which is multiplexed into a second multiplexed signal ( 101 B) and a serializer/deserializer apparatus including first converter means for receiving the first demultiplexed signal which is converted to an output signal, second converter means for receiving an input signal which is converted to the second demultiplexed signal, and reconfiguration means responsive to one or more control signals selected from a group including (1) a PASS control signal for selecting one or more signal components of the first demultiplexed signal to be looped-back to become selected one or more signal components of the second demultiplexed signal, (2) a DROP control signal for selecting one or more signal components of the first demultiplexed signal to be dropped and outputted as corresponding one or more signal components of the third multiplexed signal, and (3) an ADD control signal for selecting one or more signal components of the fourth multiplexed signal to be added as corresponding one or more signal components of the second demultiplexed signal.