Patent ID: 7209657

Claim:
A communication system comprising: one or more line cards each operable to receive at least one packet comprising an identifier associated with at least one of a plurality of destination elements, each line card comprising control circuitry operable to generate a control signal comprising control information; one or more optical transmitters each associated with one of the one or more line cards and each operable to generate at a specified wavelength an optical signal comprising at least a portion of the at least one packet received by the line card associated with that optical transmitter, the optical signal further comprising at least a portion of the control information of the control signal generated by the control circuitry of the line card associated with that optical transmitter; and a receiver associated with one of the one or more line cards and operable to receive an upstream optical signal from the plurality of destination elements; a communicating fabric operable to receive the optical signals from the one or more optical transmitters and to communicate to each of the plurality of destination elements at least some of the optical signals, wherein the at least a portion of the control information of the optical signal is communicated to the plurality of destination elements through the communicating fabric in a same direction as the optical signals; wherein each of the plurality of destination elements comprise a filter coupled to a destination receiver and a destination transmitter, the destination receiver operable to receive at least a fraction of the optical signals, the destination elements operable to, based at least in part on the control information of the optical signal, perform an operation to generate the upstream optical signal that is transmitted by the destination transmitter, the destination elements coupled to the communicating fabric, which communicates at least a fraction of the upstream optical signal to the receiver associated with the one of the line cards; wherein at least some of the one or more optical transmitters comprise a modulator operable to receive from a super-continuum source an unmodulated optical signal having a center wavelength and to modulate the received signal, wherein the super-continuum source is operable to generate using a single optical source a plurality of unmodulated optical signals each having a center wavelength, and wherein the super-continuum source comprises: a pulse source operable to generate a plurality of optical pulses; a continuum generator operable to broaden the spectrum of the plurality of optical pulses into an approximate spectral continuum of optical pulses; and a signal splitter operable to generate from the approximate continuum the plurality of unmodulated optical signals each comprising a center wavelength.