Optical transport switching node with framer

摘要

A switching node for an optical communication system has an electrical switch, coupled to switch electrical signals from an input converter to a selected one of the outputs, and has a framer for reading or writing optical transport overhead information from or to the electrical signals. A bypass path is provided so that at least some of the signals being switched can bypass the framer. This can enable each node to be more efficient or handle more signals, since the framer no longer has to process all the signals. A reduction in power consumption can result. A method of configuring the switching node can involve a management system receiving information about the network, determining a new wavelength routing configuration and sending control signals to the node to configure the switches and control which signals use the bypass path.

主权项

1. A switching node for an optical communication system, the switching node comprising:
an optical input path, and an optical output path, and at least one other output, of optical or other type; an input converter to convert optical signals on the optical input path to electrical input signals; an output converter to convert output electrical signals to output optical signals; an electrical switch, coupled to switch electrical signals from the input converter to a selected one of the outputs; a framer for reading or writing optical transport overhead information from or to the electrical signals; an interface for coupling the framer to the electrical switch, so as to provide a bypass path so that at least some of the signals being switched by the electrical switch can be switched selectively onto the bypass path to bypass the framer and be output without reading or writing of their optical transport overhead information; and an interface for coupling to a wavelength routing management system, wherein the interface for coupling to the wavelength routing management system is configured to receive control signals from the wavelength routing management system to configure the switching node subsystem to configure which of the electrical signals are added or dropped or passed through.