An optical routing system for free space optical communication is disclosed. The system has a transmitter and a receiver that use free space optical communication, and includes an optical path based on waveguide where an optical signal is routed from the proximity of the transmitter to the proximity of the destination. This system has advantages in terms of mitigating line-of-sight issues, as well as potentially reducing the overall coupling loss that would be otherwise incurred due to beam divergence of free space propagation for long distance.

A communication network includes a first serving area, a second serving area, a network hub, one or more trunk optical cables, and a first bridging connection. The first serving area includes a first optical switch, a first optical node, and one or more first intra-serving-area (ISA) optical cables communicatively coupling the first optical node to the first optical switch. The second serving area includes a second optical switch, a second optical node, and one or more second ISA optical cables communicatively coupling the second optical node to the second optical switch. The one or more trunk optical cables communicatively couple the first and second optical nodes to the network hub, and the first bridging connection communicatively couples the one or more first ISA optical cables and the one or more second ISA optical cables.

A method for creating a hybrid electric and optical data center network is provided with a plurality of servers, a plurality of ToR/EoR switches, and an optical central switch. Each of the plurality servers maintains an electronic connection with a corresponding ToR/EoR switch from the plurality of switches. The plurality of ToR/EoR switches is interconnected to each other electronically and optically. The optical central switch in conjunction with a plurality of tunable transceivers allows a signal originating from any of the plurality of the servers, to traverse the data center network to reach any destination server. To do so, wavelength switching takes place via the plurality of transceivers at each of the ToR/EoR switches. Simultaneously, space switching takes place within the center switch. By utilizing the method, intra data center bandwidth is optimized and the network the method is utilized in is non-blocking.

A service switching system and a service switching method, where the system includes at least two service processing subracks and at least one optical cross-connect subrack. Each service processing subrack is connected to each optical cross-connect subrack using an optical fiber. Each service processing subrack is configured to perform service switching for an externally inputted service data electrical signal, and then convert it into an optical signal, and send to one or more optical cross-connect subracks, or vice versa. Each optical cross-connect subrack is configured to receive a service data optical signal from one or more service processing subracks and perform optical cross-connection for the service data optical signal, and then output the service data optical signal to the one or more service processing subracks, which reduce interconnection costs of the service switching system.

A large number of degrees for relays of optical signals transmitted via optical paths in the degrees is secured. A wavelength cross-connect device 20A performs a relay by splitting optical signals from respective degrees indicated by reference numerals 40l, 40h, 40m, 40q, each of the degrees being provided by optical fibers, via respective optical couplers and outputting the split optical signals to output sides of the plurality of degrees via respective WSSs 23a to 23d. As the optical couplers, variable couplers 27a to 27d whose respective splitting ratios, each of which is a ratio of optical signal power losses in splitting an optical signal, are variable are used. The wavelength cross-connect device 20A includes a control unit 26 that performs control to change the splitting ratios in such a manner as to eliminate an imbalance among OSNR margins of the output sides of the degrees in which a plurality of optical paths transmitting the split optical signals extend. The control unit 26 calculates the margins for the respective optical paths transmitting the split optical signals via the variable couplers 27a to 27d, for each of the output sides of the degrees. The control unit 26 performs control to, based on respective smallest margins of the degrees in all the margins, change the splitting ratios of the variable couplers 27a to 27d in such a manner as to eliminate an imbalance between the margins of the degrees.

An optical interconnection system and method are provided. The system includes two or more basic components that are stacked and interconnected. The basic component includes an optical network layer and an electrical layer, where in each basic component, the optical network layer is electrically interconnected with the electrical layer, and the optical network layer of each basic component is optically interconnected with an optical network layer of an adjacent basic component, and through optical interconnection in three-dimensional space, a limitation on a quantity of stacked electrical layers is reduced, and efficiency of signal transmission is increased.

An adaptive compensation control method for optical communications technologies, which includes acquiring optical label information of an optical signal, where the optical label information carries information about a destination receive port of the optical signal, determining, according to the information about the destination receive port of the optical signal, a switching path, in an optical switch switching matrix, of the optical signal, and determining an optical switch compensation value of the optical signal according to a preset compensation value of each optical switch cell on the switching path, where the optical switch compensation value is used to compensate the optical signal.

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.

As network traffic grows and more data needs to be transmitted through a network, it is desired to use optical switching systems that allow for switching between a large number of nodes. An optical switching system according to one embodiment disclosed herein allows different nodes to transmit optical signals having the same optical wavelength, in order to accommodate a larger number of nodes. For example, one cluster of nodes may transmit data using optical wavelengths that are the same as optical wavelengths that may also be used by other clusters of nodes. A controller performs scheduling and reconfiguration in the optical switching system, as needed, e.g. in order to mitigate collisions.

An optical switch comprises a first stage comprising N optical inputs, wherein N is an integer power of 2 and is 16 or greater, and N first sub-switches, wherein each first sub-switch comprises 1 of the optical inputs and 4 first outputs, and a second stage coupled to the first stage and comprising 16 second sub-switches, wherein each second sub-switch comprises M second inputs and M second outputs, and wherein M is equal to N/4.