| 摘要 |
An optical switch includes an optical router portion for distributing multi-wavelength optical signals received at input ports of the switch, an optical combiner portion for supplying multi-wavelength signals at the output ports of the switch, and optical fibers for interconnecting the optical router portion and optical combiner portion. Selected ones of the interconnecting optical fibers include wavelength-selective elements, such as fiber gratings, which are capable of transmitting or reflecting individual channels within the multi-wavelength optical signal so that a selected channel of a particular wavelength can be routed from any of the input ports to any of the output ports of the switch. In one exemplary embodiment, the optical router portion includes a plurality of input optical couplers, wherein each input optical coupler is associated with a corresponding input port of the optical switch. Similarly, the optical combiner portion includes a plurality of output optical couplers, wherein each output optical coupler is associated with a corresponding output port of the optical switch. Each input optical coupler together with its associated fiber gratings on the interconnecting optical fibers is used for distributing the signals received via the input ports while each output optical coupler together with its associated fiber gratings is used for combining the signals to be supplied at the output ports of the switch. By controlling the transmissive and reflective operating modes of the fiber gratings, the fiber gratings can facilitate the switching of individual channels of the multi-wavelength optical signals on a wavelength by wavelength basis.
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