A data center network node (28) comprises one or more switch (18,19,22,23) configured to link an optical transceiver (16,17) to an optical connection comprising a multi-core optical fiber (30) having a plurality of cores (31). For each core (31), the one or more switch (18,19,22,23) is configurable between a first configuration in which an optical signal on a said core (31) of the multi-core optical fiber bypasses the optical transceiver and a second configuration in which the optical transceiver is optically linked to the said core (31) of the multi-core optical fiber (30).

An apparatus in embodiments of this application includes M optical carrier modules, M electro-optic modulation modules, M optical time delay modules, a splitting wavelength division multiplexer WDM, N photoelectric conversion modules, and an antenna array having k*N antenna units, where k, M, and N are integers greater than or equal to 1.

Embodiments of this application disclose a switch and a communication system. The switch in embodiments of this application includes a first laser and a first optical splitter. The first laser is configured to provide a first laser light. The first optical splitter is configured to split the first laser light into a first downstream laser light and a second downstream laser light, where the first downstream laser light is used for transmitting information to a first terminal, and the second downstream laser light is used for transmitting information to a second terminal.

A repeater device that can achieve signal transferring and path switching in optical transmission lines susceptible to environmental changes is provided. The repeater device receives weak signal light and normal reference light and transmits them in a communication network. The repeater includes: an optical route selector that selects an input-side spatial link connected to an upstream adjacent node and an output-side spatial link connected to a downstream adjacent node; a link state detector that detects a link state of at least one of the input-side spatial link and the output-side spatial link, wherein the link state is an attenuation rate or a transmission rate; and a controller that controls the optical route selector to select an optimal pair of output-side spatial link and input-side spatial link according to the link state.

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 fiber branching switching apparatus that branches and switches a multi-core fiber to a multi-core fiber is provided. Provided is an optical fiber branching switching apparatus including a first optical fiber, a second optical fiber, a third optical fiber, a plurality of fourth optical fibers, a plurality of fifth optical fibers, and a plurality of sixth optical fibers, wherein the first optical fiber is connected to the second optical fiber by using a plurality of the fourth optical fibers, the first optical fiber is connected to the third optical fiber by using a plurality of the fifth optical fibers, and the second optical fiber is connected to the third optical fiber by using a plurality of the sixth optical fibers.

An example cascaded optical switch includes: a fast optical switch and a slow optical switch both having input ports and output ports. A switching time of the slow switch is longer than a switching time of the fast optical switch. The cascaded optical switch includes a first pre-cabled optical fiber connecting an output port of the slow optical switch to an input ports of the fast optical switch, and a second pre-cabled optical fiber connecting an output ports of the fast optical switch to an input ports of the slow optical switch. The fast optical switch or the slow optical switch is configured to receive configuration data to modify a switching configuration to configure a fiber cross-connect in the optical switch fabric that includes at least one of the first pre-cabled optical fiber or the second pre-cabled optical fiber.

An undersea fiber optic cable routing architecture including a branching unit coupled to three trunk cables capable of switching individual fibers in each fiber pair within a cable to either of the other two cables. The branching unit comprises a plurality of optical switches and a controller for receiving remote command signals and configuring the optical switches in accordance with the remote command signals.

An optical device includes a plurality of optical input ports, a plurality of optical output ports, a wavelength dispersion arrangement and at least one optical beam steering arrangement. The plurality of optical input ports is configured to receive optical beams each having a plurality of wavelength components. The wavelength dispersion arrangement receives the optical beams and spatially separates each of the optical beams into a plurality of wavelengths components. The optical beam steering arrangement has a first region onto which the spatially separated wavelength components are directed and a second region onto which any subset of the plurality of wavelength components of each of the optical beams is selectively directed after the wavelength components in each of the subsets are spatially recombined with one another. The optical beam steering arrangement selectively directs each of subset of the plurality of wavelength components to a different one of the optical output ports.

An optical node may include an optical switch and an optical add drop multiplexer (OADM). The optical switch may receive, via a space-division multiplexing (SDM) link that carries optical signals via multiple SDM elements, an optical signal to be switched from a first SDM element to a second SDM element. The multiple SDM elements may include multiple cores of a multi-core fiber, multiple modes of a multi-mode fiber, or multiple fibers of a fiber bundle. The optical switch may switch the optical signal from the first SDM element to the second SDM element. The OADM may add optical signals to an optical network or drop optical signals from the optical network via one or more SDM links that include the SDM link.