Patent ID: 8218967

Claim:
An optical switching system, comprising: a plurality of transmit nodes, each transmit node includes an optical transmitter capable of transmitting an optical signal that carries data; an optical signal splitter connected to each optical transmitter, each optical signal splitter is configured to split an optical signal received from the respective optical transmitter into a first optical signal portion and a second optical signal portion, the first and second optical signal portions carrying the same data; a first optical switch including a plurality of first inputs connected to the optical signal splitters and receiving therefrom the first optical signal portions, and a plurality of first outputs, each of the first inputs is selectively connectable to each of the first outputs; a second optical switch including a plurality of second inputs connected to the optical signal splitters and receiving therefrom the second optical signal portions, and a plurality of second outputs, each of the second inputs is selectively connectable to each of the second outputs; the first optical switch has a faster switching speed than the second optical switch, and the second optical switch uses less power than the first optical switch; a plurality of optical signal combiners, each optical signal combiner is connected to one of the first outputs and one of the second outputs; and a plurality of receive nodes connected to the optical signal combiners, each receive node includes an optical receiver capable of receiving an optical signal.