Optical switch with synchronisation

摘要

The optical switch arrangement is included in an optical node of an optical network and includes an optical switch (OS) with optical inputs and optical outputs which routes incoming optical signals from the optical inputs to the optical outputs and generates outgoing optical signals. The optical switch arrangement (OSA) additional includes an optical delay device (ODD) with optical delay units (ODU1, ..., ODUm) coupled to a subset of the optical outputs and which delays an outgoing optical signal with a predetermined delay time to generate a delayed optical signals and a control unit (CTRL) to control the routing and the predetermined delay time. The optical switch arrangement (OSA) is thereby enabled to synchronise incoming optical signals. The arrangement is used in an optical protection switching module consisting of the cascade connection of this optical switch arrangement (OSA) and a plurality of optical selectors which select one out of the outgoing optical signals or the delayed optical signals. A second use of the arrangement relates to an optical hitless protection switching module (OHPSW) simular to the previous module but where the optical selectors select one out of a plurality of synchronised outgoing optical signals. <IMAGE>