GROOMING OF CHANNELS IN WAVELENGTH DIVISION MULTIPLEXED OPTICAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

摘要

The invention is concerned with a method of grooming channels in a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) communication system (10), the system (10) comprising a plurality of system nodes (20) interconnected together by a ring formation of optical fibre waveguides (30) for guiding communication traffic bearing radiation between the nodes (20). The radiation comprises a plurality of wavelength channels for conveying communication traffic said channels being spaced over a channel wavelength spectrum. The method is characterised by selecting the wavelength channels being used within the system to convey communication traffic (active channels) such as to consolidate them into a relatively more compact part or parts of the wavelength spectrum such as to occupy less communication bandwidth.