OPTICAL ADD/DROP MULTIPLEXER AND RING STRUCTURE FOR TRANSMITTING DATA BY MEANS OF AN OPTICAL WAVELENGTH MULTIPLEX SYSTEM

摘要

The invention relates to an optical add/drop multiplexer for realizing an optical wavelength communications ring network with a first (west side) and a second (east side) optical group wavelength multiplexer/demultiplexer unit, which demultiplex a wavelength multiplex signal that is fed thereto into a number of optical group multiplex signals and/or which multiplex a number of optical group multiplex signals that are fed thereto to form an outgoing optical wave multiplex signal. A portion of the optical group multiplex signals are fed to the group multiplex signal ports of the respective other wavelength multiplexer/demultiplexer unit. The inventive add/drop multiplexer comprises at least one channel multiplexer unit, to which an optical group multiplex signal can be fed and which demultiplexes this signal into the individual optical useful signals, feeds it to an optical transceiver unit, and which multiplexes the optical useful signals sent by the optical transceiver units to form an optical group multiplex signal. The group multiplex signal port of the at least one channel multiplexer unit can be connected by means of an optical group switch unit to a group multiplex signal port of the first or of the second optical group wavelength multiplexer/demultiplexer unit. The add/drop multiplexer additionally comprises a control unit for controlling the at least one optical group switch unit.