Patent ID: 7359635

Claim:
An optically-switched optical network, comprising: information signal channels allocated to one or more optical information signals, wherein said information signal channels transmit on a fiber optic line, each respective one of said information signal channels corresponding to a respective optical wavelength range, wherein the wavelength ranges corresponding to said information signal channels are different from each other; routing signal channels allocated to optical routing signals transmitted on said fiber optic line with the optical information signals, each respective one of said routing signal channels corresponding to a respective optical wavelength range, wherein the wavelength ranges corresponding to said routing signal channels are different from each other and are different from the wavelength ranges corresponding to said information signal channels; and switching nodes, each comprising an optically-controlled optical switching module operable in response to at least one of the optical routing signals to switch a multi-wavelength optical signal comprising the one or more optical information signals and the optical routing signals to another of the switching nodes.