CONTROLLABLE WAVELENGTH-SELECTIVE OPTICAL CROSS-CONNECT

摘要

In accordance with the invention, an optical cross-connect switch includes an optical router for distributing multi-wavelength optical input signals, an optical combiner for supplying multi-wavelength signals at the output ports of the switch, and optical fibers for interconnecting the optical router and optical combiner. Selected interconnecting optical fibers include controllable wavelength-selective elements, such as magnetically controllable fiber gratings, which are capable of transmitting or reflecting individual channels within the multi-wavelength optical signals so that a selected channel of a particular wavelength can be routed from any of the input ports to any of the output ports of the switch.