Method and apparatus of an optical routing system (ORS) capable of automatically discovering intra-nodal fiber connections using a test channel transceiver (TCT) are disclosed. ORS, in one embodiment, includes a set of reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) modules, intra-nodal fiber connections, add-drop modules, and a test module. The ROADM modules are able to transmit or receive optical signals via optical fibers. The intra-nodal fiber connections are configured to provide optical connections. The add-drop modules are able to selectively make connections between input ports and output ports. The test module containing TCT is configured to identify at least a portion of intra-nodal connections of the ROADM via a test signal operating with a unique optical frequency.

An optical submarine branching apparatus 1 includes a control unit and a switching unit. The switching unit connects to a plurality of first optical fiber transmission lines connecting to a first terminal station, a plurality of second optical fiber transmission lines connecting to a second terminal station, and a third optical fiber transmission line connecting to a third terminal station, and switches a transmission route of a wavelength-multiplexed optical signal. The control unit controls the switching of the transmission route by the switching unit. The switching unit is configured to be capable of connecting each of the plurality of first optical fiber transmission lines to one of the plurality of second optical fiber transmission lines. The switching unit further is configured to be capable of switching any one of the plurality of first optical fiber transmission lines to connect to the third optical fiber transmission line.

An optical transmission system includes a transmitting node that transmits wavelength light of an operational path to an optical waveguide, and a receiving node that receives the wavelength light from the optical waveguide. The transmitting node includes a light source that generates spontaneously emitted light and a wavelength selector that generates and outputs dummy wavelength light from the spontaneously emitted light generated by the light source. The receiving node includes an extractor that extracts spectral data of the dummy wavelength light passed in the optical waveguide. The optical transmission system further includes an obtainer that obtains a band state of the operational path from the spectral data of the dummy wavelength light extracted by the extractor.

Example embodiments of the present invention relate to programmable ROADMs used to construct optical nodes. Example embodiments include wavelength switches and waveguide switches, wherein the waveguide switches may be programmed to direct wavelength division multiplexed optical signals to and from the wavelength switches.

The present invention relates to adding and dropping signals in a node of an optical network, wherein the node includes a reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM). The reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) comprises output ports and at least one add port connectable to at least one line interface of the network and adapted to receive a modulated optical signal from the line interface. Selection units are connected to one of said add ports and adapted to forward the respective signals to a selected output terminal. A plurality of broadcast units is adapted to broadcast signals forwarded by the selection. Then a multiplexing and selecting device or apparatus selects and multiplexes the optical signals broadcast via broadcast unit output terminals into a plurality of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) optical signals and forwards the same to output ports of the reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM).

Systems and methods are in a node in a network utilizing a control plane for triggering mesh restoration due to intra-node faults, and include monitoring at least one channel at a degree at a plurality of degrees associated with the node; detecting a fault on the at least one channel, wherein the fault is an intra-node fault upstream of the degree; and transmitting a channel fault indicator downstream of the fault to at least one downstream node along a path of the faulted channel, wherein restoration is triggered based on the channel fault indicator.

An optical switch module includes: N first input ports to which a signal is input; M first output ports from which a signal is output; an M?N switch to include N second input ports and M second output ports, and to set a path between the second input ports and the second output ports, the second output ports coupling with the first output ports, respectively; a test-signal input port to which a test-signal is capable of being externally input; an expansion port from which one of the test-signal and the signal from any one of the first input ports is output; and an optical switch to selectively connect at least one of the test-signal and the signal from any one of the first input ports to at least one of the expansion port and any one of the second input ports, wherein both N and M are natural numbers.

A first configuration of an optical node may include a set of degrees, each including an inbound wavelength selective switch (WSS) and an outbound WSS. The first configuration may include a first degree expansion including a first inbound expansion WSS and a first outbound expansion WSS. An expansion input of the first inbound expansion WSS may connect to an expansion output of a second outbound expansion WSS included in a second degree expansion of a second configuration of the optical node. An expansion output of the first outbound expansion WSS may connect to an expansion input of a second inbound expansion WSS included in the second degree expansion of the second configuration. A signal input to an inbound WSS of a given one of the set of degrees may be routed, via the first degree expansion and the second degree expansion, to any drop port included in the second configuration.

Integrated circuit chips may be optically interconnected using microLEDs. Some interconnections may be vertically-launched parallel optical links. Some interconnections may be planar-launched parallel optical links.

Method and apparatus of a network configuration configured to permit a dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) element to connect to a storage server, an Internet Protocol (IP) router, and DWDM network are disclosed. The configuration includes the DWDM network, storage area network (SAN) server, IP router, and optical transport network (OTN) switch. While the DWDM network transports information via optical fibers, the DWDM switch is coupled to the DWDM network for transporting optical signals. The SAN server is coupled to a port of the DWDM switch and is configured to store data at a remote location. The IP router which is coupled to the DWDM switch facilitates IP traffic between a user and the DWDM network. The OTN switch, coupled to the first DWDM switch, is capable of processing at least a portion of the optical signals.