An optical communication system includes a plurality of optical system nodes, a plurality of optical space switches and a plurality of optical fibers. The plurality of optical system nodes each includes at least one reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM). The optical system nodes each have at least one client side port and at least one line side port. Each optical space switch is operatively coupled to the line side port of one of the plurality of optical system nodes. Each of the optical fibers couples one of the optical space switches to another of the optical space switches.

Systems, apparatus, and methods for a configurable gearbox with a variable number of input lanes and output lanes and a multiplexer for each output lane that can be configured to dynamically select any of the input lanes during each clock cycle.

An example system can comprise an optical circuit switch. An input port module can receive an input optical signal comprising a plurality of input components, perform an optical to electrical to optical conversion on the input optical signal, multiplex the plurality of input components to an internal optical signal, and transmit first internal optical signal on a first internal waveguide. A switch module can receive the internal optical signal and transmit the transformed internal optical signal on a second internal waveguide according to a predefined control algorithm, which can permit any input component to be mapped to any frequency group and sent to any output component. An output port module can receive the internal optical signal, perform another optical to electrical to optical conversion on the internal optical signal, and demultiplex the internal optical signal to an output optical signal comprising a plurality of output components.

An optical switch has four optical ports; a first optical waveguide coupled between a first of said ports and a second of the ports; a first switch element provided between the first waveguide and a second optical waveguide that is coupled to a third of the ports; a second switch element provided between the first waveguide and a third optical waveguide that is coupled to a fourth of the ports. Each switch element has a micro-ring resonator having an active state in which it is coupled to the first waveguide and to a respective one of the second and third waveguides for optical signals at a preselected wavelength, and an inactive state in which no coupling occurs. Each switch element has a control element arranged to receive a respective control signal configured to cause it to switch the micro-ring resonator between said states.

An ONU requests a bandwidth of an uplink signal, and in accordance with this, an OLT calculates a time when the OLT transmits the uplink signal and a transmission duration time and performs an instruction, and a DBA cycle in which the ONU transmits the uplink signal in accordance with the instruction and a dynamic wavelength allocation cycle in which the OLT instructs wavelength switching, and the ONU switches the wavelength and belongs to a different LC are separated. While the ONU switches the wavelength, the DBA cycles can be performed plural times in the ONU whose wavelength is not switched, the switching of the wavelength is confirmed after the wavelength has been switched, and then DBA operation is performed at the switched wavelength.

A fast optical switch can be fabricated/constructed, when vanadium dioxide (VO.sub.2) ultra thin-film or a cluster of vanadium dioxide particles (less than 0.5 microns in diameter) embedded in an ultra thin-film of a polymeric material or in a mesh of metal nanowires is activated by either an electrical pulse (a voltage pulse or a current pulse) or a light pulse just to induce rapid insulator-to-metal phase transition (IMT) in vanadium dioxide ultra thin-film or vanadium dioxide particles embedded in an ultra thin-film of a polymeric material or in a mesh of metal nanowires. The applications of such a fast optical switch for an on-Demand optical add-drop subsystem, integrating with or without a wavelength converter are also described.

An optical circuit switching matrix includes a plurality of optical ports, each optical port being optically coupled to a respective one of a plurality of user nodes and an optical coupler having at least one input port optically coupled to the plurality of optical ports, and an output port. The optical circuit switching matrix also includes a wavelength demultiplexer having an input optically coupled to the output port of the optical coupler, and a plurality of output ports, each output port being optically coupled to a respective one of the plurality of optical ports.

A method for transmitting data over an optical communication system is performed by sequentially tuning a laser beam among a plurality of optical wavelengths. At least one data signal is modulated onto the plurality of optical wavelengths by sequentially switching the modulation of the data signal among the plurality of optical wavelengths such that at any given time the data signal is only modulated onto a single one of the optical wavelengths. The sequential switching is performed at a rate equal to or greater than a response time of one or more optical amplifiers used for amplifying the optical wavelengths.

The present invention provides an optoelectronic switch for transferring an optical signal from an input device to an output device, the optoelectronic switch including an array of interconnected switch modules, which are interconnected by an interconnecting fabric. The switch modules are arranged in an N-dimensional array, the ith dimension having a size Ri (i=1, 2, . . . , N), each switch module having an associated set of coordinates giving its location with respect to each of the N dimensions. Each switch module is a member of N such sub-arrays Si, each sub-array Si comprising Ri switch modules whose coordinates differ only in respect of their location in the ith dimension, and each of the N sub-arrays being associated with a different dimension.

A data communication system for transmitting packets over one or more optical fibers includes a transponder with a number of digital signal processors that transmit data packets on different optical channels. The transponder includes a switch that receives a data packet on an input and selects one of the digital signal processors to transmit the packet based on quality metrics for the different optical channels and/or information included in an OSI header for the data packet.