A network or system in which a hub or primary node may communicate with a plurality of leaf or secondary nodes. The hub node may operate or have a capacity greater than that of the leaf nodes. Accordingly, relatively inexpensive leaf nodes may be deployed to receive data carrying optical signals from, and supply data carrying optical signals to, the hub node. One or more connections may couple each leaf node to the hub node, whereby each connection may include one or more spans or segments of optical fibers, optical amplifiers, optical splitters/combiners, and optical add/drop multiplexer, for example. Optical subcarriers may be transmitted over such connections, each carrying a data stream. The subcarriers may be generated by a combination of a laser and a modulator, such that multiple lasers and modulators are not required, and costs may be reduced. As the bandwidth or capacity requirements of the leaf nodes change, the number of subcarriers, and thus the amount of data provided to each node, may be changed accordingly. Each subcarrier within a dedicated group of subcarriers may carry OAM or control channel information to a corresponding leaf node, and such information may be used by the leaf node to configure the leaf node to have a desired bandwidth or capacity.

An ultralow-energy electro-optical 2×2 cross-bar switch comprises an identical pair of semiconductor nanobeams that are incorporated in the central arms of a waveguided Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Each nanobeam includes a one dimensional “lattice” of holes along the nanobeam axis that defines a resonant cavity whose fundamental mode is the operating wavelength of the switch. A localized, lateral lengthwise extending portion of the semiconductor nanobeam is doped P type, while the other lateral half of the nanobeam wing is doped N type, forming a P-N junction in the body. Application of an electric potential across the P-N junction alters the effective index of refraction of the lengthwise extending portion and controls both the transmission and reflection of an incoming optical signal at the operating wavelength of the switch through the semiconductor nanobeam. Constructive and destructive interference of component signals within the interferometer controls the spatial routing of the incident light.

A large-scale switching system deployed as a global network or a large-scale data center includes a large number of access nodes (edge nodes) interconnected through optical or electronic rotators. The rotators are logically arranged in a matrix and each access node has a channel to each rotator in a respective row and a channel from each rotator of a respective column of the matrix. A dual timing circuit coupled to a diagonal rotator pair exchanges timing data with edge nodes connecting to the diagonal rotator pair to facilitate temporal alignment of data received at input ports of each rotator. Each access node has a path to each other access node traversing only one of the rotators. The rotators may be arranged into constellations of collocated rotators to facilitate connectivity of access nodes to rotators using wavelength-division-multiplexed links.

A system and method for connectivity configuration of a network node permits an optical signal to be passed through the node and shifted from a first connector position to a second connector position that is offset from the first connector position. The shifted optical signal permits a number of distant nodes in the network to be reached with a direct optical connection, which can be configured to be bidirectional. The disclosed connectivity configuration reduces the cabling requirements for the network and simplifies the interconnections.

An optical network including an input to receive from an optical network light comprising plural wavelength components. An optical wavelength selective filter, optically connected to the input, extracts a first wavelength component of the plural wavelength components from the light, thereby providing a first optical signal including the first wavelength component and a second optical signal including a remainder of the plural wavelength components a light emitter to provide a modulated broadband optical signal. A first output, optically connected to the optical wavelength selective filter, receives a first portion of the second optical signal for transmission to a light detector and a second output, optically connected to optical wavelength selective filter, receives a second portion of the second optical signal for transmission to the optical network.

In order to realize a variable equalizer which is compact and has a wide range of tilt level adjustment, this variable equalizer is provided with a first optical equalizer group including a plurality of first equalizers having mutually different tilt amounts, a second optical equalizer group including a plurality of second equalizers, and an optical element for forming the optical path of an optical signal so that an inputted optical signal is outputted passing through a selected first optical equalizer and a selected second optical equalizer, at least one of the plurality of second optical equalizers having a tilt amount different from any of the plurality of first optical equalizers.

A transmitter can include a laser operable to output an optical signal; a digital signal processor operable to receive data and provide a plurality of electrical signals based on the data; and a modulator operable to modulate the optical signal to provide a plurality of optical subcarriers based on the plurality of electrical signals. One of the plurality of subcarriers carries first information indicative of a first portion of the data in a first time slot and second information indicative of a second portion of the data in a second time slot. The first information is associated with a first node remote from the transmitter and the second information is associated with a second node remote from the transmitter. A receiver as well as a system also are described.

A user module for connecting an external communication network to a user network of a building may include: a box-shaped body; a plurality of adapters configured to associate to respective optical fiber units of at least one optical cable of the user network; and/or patch panel, between upper and lower walls of the box-shaped body, configured to receive the plurality of adapters and configured to define adjacent compartments within the user module. The patch panel may be housed in the box-shaped body. The patch panel may be configured to move between a rest position, at which the patch panel is completely housed within the box-shaped body, and a connecting position, at which the patch panel is at least partially extracted from the box-shaped body.

Optical inputs to photonic switches may incorporate a polarization controller in order to change the polarization of the input signal to a pre-determined polarization for operation with the silicon photonics. A last stage of components of the polarization controller may overlap with a first input switching stage. A polarization controller that overlaps with the first stage of the switch input may provide lower insertion loss and power consumption for the photonic switch.

An optical switch chip, an optical switch driving module, and an optical switch driving method are disclosed. The optical switch driving module includes an optical switch chip, and the optical switch chip includes multiple optical switch units. The optical switch units are divided into N groups, where N>=1. Each group of optical switch units shares a pair of electrodes, each pair of electrodes is configured to connect to a multi-frequency driving signal source, and each optical switch unit connects to the multi-frequency driving signal source by using the band-pass filter. Pass bands of M band-pass filters that are connected to M optical switch units in a same group are different, where M>=2. The multi-frequency driving signal source outputs multiple driving signals of different frequencies that are respectively corresponding to the M band-pass filters, so as to drive the optical switch unit.