The present invention is to provide a wavelength cross-connect device that reduces device costs.

A wavelength cross-connect device 10B performs relaying for changing, using WSSs, routes of optical signals transmitted from M routes 1h to Mh, in which K optical fibers 1f to Kf are grouped for each of the routes, on an input side to output the optical signals to respective optical fibers 1f to Kf of M routes 1h to Mh on an output side. Input ports of each of the optical couplers 25a to 26d are connected to output ports of each of first WSSs 21a to 22k. Further, the input ports of each of the optical couplers 25a to 26d are connected to the output ports of the first WSSs 21a to 22k and output ports of each of the optical couplers 25a to 26d are connected to input ports of second WSSs 23a to 24k such that the optical signals input from the optical fibers 1f to Kf in each of the routes 1h to Mh on the input side are capable of being output to the optical fibers 1f to Kf in each of the routes 1h to Mh on the output side, respectively.

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 transmitter includes: a plurality of client ports configured to receive a client signal from an end user device; a plurality of line ports configured to generate a line signal in which the client signal is stored, and transmit the line signal to an optical receiver; a switch configured to connect the plurality of client ports with the plurality of line ports; and a label provider configured to provide the client signal with a label for identifying a transmission destination in the optical receiver.

The invention is a datacenter network comprising a plurality of switches. The switches comprise edge switches and aggregation switches associated with sliceable bandwidth variable transceivers (S-BVT). An intermediate passive optical layer is communicatively coupled to the edge switches and the aggregation switches via fiber optic links associated with the S-BVTs. Furthermore, the intermediate passive optical layer is inserted between the edge and aggregation layers in order to combine the signals from each tier. The intermediate passive optical layer comprises a passive fiber coupler that combines the links between switches and each S-BVT receiver receives the signals sent from all S-BVT transmitters connected to the intermediate passive optical layer. The datacenter network is adapted to adjust the local oscillator wavelength of each S-BVT receiver and the wavelength and slice allocation of each S-BVT transmitter, thereby permitting dynamically allocating different resources to each link.

An optical communication system including a hub optical transceiver, a power splitter, and a plurality of spoke transceivers. The hub optical transceiver is configured for receiving a spectrum of wavelengths. The power splitter is coupled to the hub optical transceiver, and operates as a passive device that is configured to replicate the spectrum of wavelengths and output a plurality of replicated spectrum of wavelengths, and each replicated spectrum of wavelengths has a corresponding power that is a fraction of a total power received from the hub optical transceiver. The plurality of spoke transceivers is coupled to the power splitter and each of the plurality of spoke transceivers is configured to receive a corresponding one of the plurality of replicated spectrum of wavelengths, wherein each spoke transceiver is tunable to select a band of wavelengths that set a bandwidth for the each spoke transceiver.

An optical communication system including a hub optical transceiver, a power splitter, and a plurality of spoke transceivers. The hub optical transceiver is configured for receiving a spectrum of wavelengths. The power splitter is coupled to the hub optical transceiver, and operates as a passive device that is configured to replicate the spectrum of wavelengths and output a plurality of replicated spectrum of wavelengths, and each replicated spectrum of wavelengths has a corresponding power that is a fraction of a total power received from the hub optical transceiver. The plurality of spoke transceivers is coupled to the power splitter and each of the plurality of spoke transceivers is configured to receive a corresponding one of the plurality of replicated spectrum of wavelengths, wherein each spoke transceiver is tunable to select a band of wavelengths that set a bandwidth for the each spoke transceiver.

An optical switch fabric comprises two or more optical switch elements. The optical switch elements are configured in a topology. A switch control has a plurality of bias control signals. The switch control can address one or more of the optical switch elements and can apply one of the bias control signals to bias of the addressed optical switch element to establish a switch setting. The topology and switch settings determine how each of one of the inputs is connected to each of one of the outputs of the optical switch fabric. The switch settings are determined by a machine learning process which includes a model creation. The model can be made to adapt dynamically during optical switch fabric operation.

A fast optical switch and networks comprising fast optical switches are disclosed herein. In an example embodiment, a fast optical switch includes two or more fabric switches; a first selector switch; and a second selector switch. The first selector switch may selectively pass a signal to one of the two or more fabric switches. The one of the two or more fabric switches may act on the received signal to provide a switched signal and the second selector switch may selectively receive the switched signal provided by the one of the two or more fabric switches. A slot of the fast optical switch comprises a transmission window of one of the two or more fabric switches that occurs in parallel with at least a portion of a reconfiguration window of the other of the two or more fabric switches.

A network switching system and method and a computer program product for operating a network switch are disclosed. The network switch includes a multitude of input ports and a multitude of output ports. In one embodiment, one processing device is assigned to each of the input ports and output ports to process data packets received at the input ports and transferred to the output ports. In one embodiment, the method comprises creating an intermediate adjustable configuration of processing devices functionally between the input ports and the output ports, and assigning the processing devices of the intermediate configuration to forward the data packets from the input ports to the output ports to obtain a balance between latency and synchronization of the transfer of the data packets from the input ports to the output ports. In an embodiment, software is used to create and to adjust dynamically the intermediate configuration.

The invention is a datacenter network comprising a plurality of switches. The switches comprise edge switches and aggregation switches associated with sliceable bandwidth variable transceivers (S-BVT). An intermediate passive optical layer is communicatively coupled to the edge switches and the aggregation switches via fiber optic links associated with the S-BVTs. Furthermore, the intermediate passive optical layer is inserted between the edge and aggregation layers in order to combine the signals from each tier. The intermediate passive optical layer comprises a passive fiber coupler that combines the links between switches and each S-BVT receiver receives the signals sent from all S-BVT transmitters connected to the intermediate passive optical layer. The datacenter network is adapted to adjust the local oscillator wavelength of each S-BVT receiver and the wavelength and slice allocation of each S-BVT transmitter, thereby permitting dynamically allocating different resources to each link.