Circuits and methods that implement multiplexing for photons propagating in waveguides are disclosed, in which an input photon received on a selected one of a set of input waveguides can be selectably routed to one of a set of output waveguides. The output waveguide can be selected on a rotating or cyclic basis, in a fixed order, and the input waveguide can be selected based at least in part on which one(s) of a set of input waveguides is (are) currently propagating a photon.

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 monitoring control unit (22) of an OXC (20d) stores a management table (22a) in which pieces of information regarding a modulation mode, an FEC, and a frame mode of an optical signal are associated with each other, and sequentially changes the modulation mode, the FEC, and the frame mode according to the management table (22a) upon an LOS alert from a relay-side optical input/output unit (24) or an LOF alert from a DSP (25) being input thereto. Upon successfully receiving an appropriate optical signal according to the change, the monitoring control unit (22) acquires transmission source information included in the optical signal, and detects an occurrence of erroneous connection of an optical transmission line in an OXC (20g), which serves as a relay apparatus, when the acquired transmission source information indicates an optical cross-connect apparatus that is a transmission source different from an original transmission source.

A node device capable of optimal transfer in accordance with the traffic situation of a network irrespective of the optical signaling system is provided. The node device includes a first wavelength selective switch connected to an input-side optical fiber; a fast selective switch connected to the first wavelength selective switch for cut-through or selective switching to an OCS controller or an OFS/OPS controller; an optical coupler connected to a cut-through output of the fast selective switch, an output of the OCS controller, and an output of the OFS/OPS controller; a second wavelength selective switch connected to an output of the optical coupler; and a node controller that performs wavelength assignment control for the first and second wavelength selective switches, path/label switch control for the fast selective switch, and flow/packet switch control for the OFS/OPS controller.

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.

Circuits and methods that implement multiplexing for photons propagating in waveguides are disclosed, in which an input photon received on a selected one of a set of input waveguides can be selectably routed to one of a set of output waveguides. The output waveguide can be selected on a rotating or cyclic basis, in a fixed order, and the input waveguide can be selected based at least in part on which one(s) of a set of input waveguides is (are) currently propagating a photon.

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.

A monitoring control unit (22) of an OXC (20d) stores a management table (22a) in which pieces of information regarding a modulation mode, an FEC, and a frame mode of an optical signal are associated with each other, and sequentially changes the modulation mode, the FEC, and the frame mode according to the management table (22a) upon an LOS alert from a relay-side optical input/output unit (24) or an LOF alert from a DSP (25) being input thereto. Upon successfully receiving an appropriate optical signal according to the change, the monitoring control unit (22) acquires transmission source information included in the optical signal, and detects an occurrence of erroneous connection of an optical transmission line in an OXC (20g), which serves as a relay apparatus, when the acquired transmission source information indicates an optical cross-connect apparatus that is a transmission source different from an original transmission source.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including an apparatus for generating clusters of building blocks of compute nodes using an optical network. In one aspect, a method includes receiving data specifying requested compute nodes for a computing workload. The data specifies a target arrangement of the nodes. A subset of building blocks of a superpod is selected. A logical arrangement of the subset of compute nodes that matches the target arrangement is determined. A workload cluster of compute nodes that includes the subset of the building blocks is generated. For each dimension of the workload cluster, respective routing data for two or more OCS switches for the dimension is configured. One-to-many switches are configured such that a second compute node of each segment of compute nodes is connected to a same OCS switch as a corresponding first compute node of a corresponding segment to which the second compute node is connected.

A method of operating an optical switch (1) arranged in an optical DCN (2), comprising: providing first and second NIC's (3, 10), having first and second label channel parts (5, 12) and first and second data channel parts (6, 13), configured in a first and second ToR (7, 14) of a first and second server rack (8, 15), arranging an optical switch communicating with the first and second data channel parts via first and second data channels (16, 17), configuring a switch controller (18) communicating with the first and second label channel parts via first and second label channels (19, 20), transmitting destination information of data packets (30) carried by paired label packets (31) to the switch controller, transmitting data packets to the optical switch, generating signals (45) to configure the optical switch, and sending the data packets to a destination port.