Patent ID: 8116630

Claim:
A system for dynamically add/dropping wavelengths in a reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer transport network having a plurality of optical transponders, comprising: a plurality of optical fan-out devices, each arranged to receive an input signal from a network degree and coupled to a plurality of optical fan-in devices, each optical fan-in device arranged to output a signal to a network degree, the optical fan-out devices comprising a wavelength selective switch and the optical fan-in devices comprising a wavelength selective switch, the optical fan-out devices and optical fan-in devices being connected so as to enable signals input from each of a plurality of network degrees to be switched to another network degree of the plurality of network degrees; a plurality of demultiplexers for locally dropping selected wavelengths; a plurality of multiplexers for locally adding selected wavelengths; a fiber switch interposed between the plurality of optical transponders and the plurality of demultiplexers and the plurality of multiplexers, the fiber switch being coupled to wavelengths and degrees that are allocated for a bandwidth-on-demand application, wherein the fiber switch comprises first and second fiber switches interposed between the plurality of optical transponders and the plurality of multiplexers and the plurality of demultiplexers to provide a redundant path through the reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer; a pair of optical transponders of the plurality of optical transponders respectively coupled to the first fiber switch and the second fiber switch; and a Y-splitter coupled to the pair of optical transponders.