Patent ID: 8363991

Claim:
An optical routing element, comprising: a first circulator having a first and second bidirectional ports, wherein: the first bidirectional port of the first circulator is configured to: receive a plurality of input spectral bands via the first circulator, and output a corresponding express optical signal via the first circulator, wherein the express optical signal that is output from the first circulator includes one or more input spectral bands of the plurality of input spectral bands received at the first circulator and one or more add spectral bands received at the first circulator, and the second bidirectional port of the first circulator is configured to receive the one or more add spectral bands; and a wavelength routing element (WRE), coupled to the second bidirectional port of the first circulator and configured to optically combine the one or more input spectral bands of the plurality of input spectral bands with the one or more add spectral bands to create the express optical signal.