Various methods, systems, and apparatuses, for optical switching are provided. For example, one wavelength selective switch (WSS) includes a plurality of optical ports wherein one or more optical ports are configured to receive one or more input optical beams the one or more input optical beams having a plurality of wavelength channels and wherein one or more of the optical ports are configured to receive one or more wavelength channels of the plurality of wavelength channels for output. The WSS also includes a polarization conditioning assembly, a polarization beam splitter assembly, a direction dependent polarization rotator, a polarization beam splitter, a grating, and a polarization modulator array having a plurality of polarizing modulation cells, each cell configured to independently change a polarization orientation of an optical beam passing through the cell.

A wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) reconfigurable optical switch, the switch has at least one optical input port to receive a WDM input optical signal comprising a plurality of wavelength channels; a plurality of optical output ports; a reconfigurable holographic array on an optical path between the at least one optical input port and the plurality of optical output ports; and at least one diffractive element on an optical path between at least one optical input port and the reconfigurable holographic array, to demultiplex the WDM input optical signal into a plurality of demultiplexed optical input beam channels, and to disperse the demultiplexed optical input beam channels spatially along a first axis on said the reconfigurable holographic array; and the switch further comprises one or more beam profiling optical elements to modify transverse beam profiles of the demultiplexed optical input beam channels.

We describe a space-division multiplexed (SDM) fibre, reconfigurable, wavelength-selective switch (WSS). The switch comprises a space-division multiplexed (SDM) optical input port to receive a space-division multiplexed (SDM) optical input signal comprising a plurality of space division modes each of said space division modes carrying a respective data signal, wherein each of said space division modes is also wavelength division multiplexed (WDM); an optical space division demultiplexer, coupled to said input port, to split said space-division multiplexed (SDM) optical input signal into a plurality of space division demultiplexed optical signals on separate demultiplexer outputs of said demultiplexer, each said demultiplexer output of said demultiplexer comprising a wavelength division multiplexed one of said plurality of space division modes; a set of reconfigurable wavelength-selective optical switches, each reconfigurable wavelength-selective optical switch having a switch input and a set of N switch outputs, and each including a dispersive element and a controllable beam steering element such that each said reconfigurable wavelength-selective optical switch is reconfigurable to selectively direct different respective wavelengths of a WDM optical signal at said switch input to different selected outputs of said set of N switch outputs, and wherein each said demultiplexer output is coupled to said switch input of a respective one of said set of reconfigurable wavelength-selective optical switches; and a set of optical space division multiplexers, one for each of said N switch outputs, each said optical space division multiplexer having a set of multiplexer inputs and a multiplexer output, to re-multiplex optical signals at said multiplexer inputs into a space-division multiplexed optical output signal at said multiplexer output, and wherein, for each of said set of optical space division multiplexers, each multiplexer input of said set of multiplexer inputs is coupled to said switch output of a different respective one of said set of reconfigurable wavelength-selective optical switches.

Disclosed is an invention related to a wavelength selective switch for multiple units. The wavelength selective switch for multiple units according to the present invention comprises: multiple input/output port groups comprising multiple input/output port arrays for transmitting multiple light beams comprising multiple wavelength channels, respectively; a switching lens portion configured such that light beams output from respective input/output ports intersect on a switching axis; a first prism portion arranged between the multiple input/output port arrays and the switching lens portion and configured such that respective light beams groups output from the multiple input/output port arrays refract at different angles on the switching axis; a second prism portion arranged after the switching lens portion and configured such that a center line of a light beam group output from the switching lens portion is arranged in parallel with an optical axis; a light expansion portion for expanding the beam size of a light beam output from the second prism portion in a dispersion axis direction; a light splitting portion for splitting the light beam, the beam size of which has been expanded by the light expansion portion, at a different angle on the dispersion axis according to the wavelength component; an image lens portion for readjusting and focusing wavelengths split by the light splitting portion; and a switching portion comprising divided surfaces corresponding to the multiple input/output port groups, the switching portion being configured to change the angle of a selected wavelength on the switching axis such that a wavelength channels of an input port selected independently with regard to each group is transmitted to an output port selected independently.

Embodiments of the invention include an optical routing device that includes an organic substrate. According to an embodiment, an array of cavities are formed into the organic substrate and an array of piezoelectrically actuated mirrors may be anchored to the organic substrate with each piezoelectrically actuated mirror extending over a cavity. In order to properly rout incoming optical signals, the optical routing device may also include a routing die mounted on the organic substrate. The routing die may be electrically coupled to each of the piezoelectrically actuated mirrors and is able to generated a voltage across the first and second electrodes of each piezoelectrically actuated mirror. Additionally, a photodetector may be electrically coupled to the routing die. According to an embodiment, an array of fiber optic cables may be optically coupled with one of the piezoelectrically actuated mirrors and optically coupled with the photodetector.

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.

We describe a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) reconfigurable optical switch, the switch comprising: a set of arrays of optical beam connections, each comprising an array of optical outputs and having an optical input to receive a WDM input optical signal; a first diffractive element to demultiplexed said WDM input optical signal into a plurality of demultiplexed optical input beams, and to disperse said demultiplexed optical input beams spatially along a first axis; first relay optics between said set of arrays of optical beam connections and said first diffractive element; and a reconfigurable holographic array comprising a 2D array of reconfigurable sub-holograms defining sub-hologram rows and columns; wherein said arrays of said set of arrays are at least one dimensional arrays extending spatially in a direction parallel to said first axis and arranged in a column defining a second axis orthogonal to said first axis; wherein said sub-hologram rows are aligned along said first axis, and wherein said sub-hologram columns are aligned along said second axis; wherein a number of said sub-hologram rows corresponds to a number of arrays in said set of arrays; and wherein each sub-hologram row is configured to receive a set of demultiplexed optical input beams at different carrier wavelengths demultiplexed from the optical input for the array of the set of arrays to which the row corresponds; wherein each of said sub-holograms in a sub-hologram row is reconfigurable to steer a respective wavelength channel of the WDM input signal for the array to which the sub-hologram row corresponds, towards a selected said optical output for the array; and wherein each said sub-hologram row is configured to steer the demultiplexed optical input beams for a respective array of the set of arrays of optical beam connections.

A system for efficiently interconnecting computing nodes can include a plurality of computing nodes and a plurality of network switches coupled in parallel to the plurality of computing nodes. The system can also include a plurality of node interfaces. Each computing node among the plurality of computing nodes can include at least one node interface for each network switch among the plurality of network switches. The plurality of node interfaces corresponding to a computing node can be configured to send data to another computing node via the plurality of network switches. The system can also include a plurality of switch interfaces. Each network switch among the plurality of network switches can include at least one switch interface for each computing node among the plurality of computing nodes. A switch interface corresponding to the computing node can be coupled to a node interface corresponding to the computing node.

A reconfigurable polarization rotator is formed of an array of very small liquid crystal (LC) cells (e.g., cells of less than 10 m in width, termed microcells), referred to hereinafter as microcells. Each LC microcell is addressable by a separate electrical voltage input that independently controls the polarization rotation performed by the associated LC microcell. By defining a set of adjacent microcells to be held at the same voltage level, that group may be used to form a polarization rotator window of a proper size for a first fiber array configuration. When a fiber array of a different configuration (say, an array with twice the pitch) is used, a different-sized group of adjacent LC microcells is held at a common voltage level so as to form a reconfigured window of a new dimension.

Embodiments of the present invention provide an optical switching apparatus, an optical switching method, an optical switching node, and a system, to implement switching of optical signals in more transmission directions. The optical switching apparatus includes input ports, a first dispersion member, a first switching engine, a first beam combining member, a first lens group, a second dispersion member, a second beam combining member, a second switching engine, and output ports. The first switching engine and the second switching engine jointly change transmission directions of sub-wavelength light beams along a wavelength plane and a port plane, the wavelength plane and the port plane are perpendicular to each other, and both the wavelength plane and the port plane are parallel to transmission directions of first light beams.