HYBRID WDM/OPTICAL CROSS-CONNECT NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

摘要

A method and apparatus for coupling a plurality of local nodes to a wavelength division multiplexed network. Each local node is connected to an I/O port of an optical cross-connect. Other I/O ports of the optical cross-connect are connected to a wavelength division multiplexer/demultiplexer for coupling the optical cross- connect to a fiber ring network. Additionally, one or more optical-to-tunable-optical converters are connected to ports of the optical cross-connect to transmit data from the local nodes to the WDM mux/demux at a specified wavelength for uplinking onto the fiber ring network.