Patent ID: 7283745

Claim:
A system for routing of optical signals, comprising: an input for receiving a combined optical signal comprising a plurality of single wavelength signal components; a demultiplexer for demultiplexing the combined signal to generate a plurality of single wavelength signals, each single wavelength signal corresponding to one of the components of the combined signal; a plurality of routing system outputs, to each of which at least one of the single wavelength signals can be routed; a plurality of switch arrays conforming to a configuration automatically computed to provide optimum power dissipation for the array, each switch array having a switch array input for receiving one of the single wavelength signals and a plurality of outputs, each output corresponding to one of the routing system outputs, the switch array being operative to route its input to one of the switch array outputs in order to route the signal to the routing system output, the switch array comprising a plurality of binary optical switches, each switch having a higher power output requiring a higher power dissipation when the signal is routed to that output and a lower power output requiring a lower power dissipation when the signal is routed to that output, each switch array being arranged in a plurality of stages, the number of stages being a maximum number of switches in any path from the switch array input to one of the switch array outputs, the number of stages corresponding to a predetermined maximum, each switch array being constructed such that the available paths from the input to the outputs require the minimum power dissipation possible given the required number of outputs for the array and the maximum number of stages of the array; and a plurality of multiplexers, each multiplexer having a plurality of multiplexer inputs, each input being furnished by one of the outputs of each switch array and the multiplexer output furnishing the corresponding output of the routing system, each of the multiplexers being operative to combine the multiplexer inputs to produce the multiplexer output.