| 主权项 |
1. A compound optical circuit switch to provide selectable optical connections between a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports, comprising:
two or more 1st-tier switches, each of the plurality of input ports connected to a respective input of one of the 1st-tier switches, and each of the plurality of output ports connected to a respective output of one of the 1st-tier switches; one or more 2nd-tier switches coupled to the 1st-tier switches; and a compound connection controller configured to:
receive a global connection command identifying an input port from the plurality of input ports and an output port from the plurality of output ports to be connected through the compound switch;when the identified input port and the identified output port are connected to the same 1st-tier switch, issue a local command to that 1st-tier switch to effect a simple connection between the identified input port and the identified output port, orwhen the identified input port and the identified output port are connected to different 1st-tier switches,
select a connection path from the identified input port to the identified output port through the 1st-tier switch connected to the identified input port, 1 selected 2nd-tier switch, and the 1st-tier switch connected to the identified output port, the connection path selected based, in part, on an expected insertion loss of the connection path, andissue local commands to the 1st-tier switch connected to the identified input port, the selected 2nd-tier switch, and the 1st-tier switch connected to the identified output port to effect a compound connection along the selected connection path. |
