A PON system comprising multiple PONs, each having a respective intelligent splitter monitor (ISM). In addition to having a passive optical splitter therein, an ISM also has several remotely powered active components configured to monitor the presence of uplink light signals on the ports of the splitter and communicate with the central office using out-of-band optical signals. These ISM functionalities enable the network operator, e.g., to automatically map PON connectivity, pairing each port on the splitter with a distinct optical network unit. The PON system further comprises an optical module connected to the multiple PONs through an optical switch in a manner that supports shared access to said module by the corresponding multiple ISMs. In an example embodiment, the optical module comprises an optical transceiver capable of communicating with the ISM transceivers and one or more lasers configured to provide high-intensity light for remotely charging the ISM batteries.

A cooling system for a networking device may be provided. The networking device may comprise a first plurality of switch bars each comprising a first switch type arranged parallel to one another, a second plurality of switch bars each comprising a second switch type arranged parallel to one another, and a third plurality of switch bars each comprising a third switch type arranged parallel to one another. The first plurality of switch bars, the second plurality of switch bars, and the third plurality of switch bars may be arranged orthogonally. A plurality of cooling passages may be configured to supply a coolant to the apparatus and to exhaust the coolant from the apparatus. The coolant may pass through the first plurality of switch bars, the second plurality of switch bars, and the third plurality of switch bars.

Methods and apparatus are provided for switching an optical signal. In one aspect, an optical switching apparatus comprises a first beam splitting apparatus configured to split a first optical input signal into first and second optical signals, wherein the first optical signal has substantially the same polarization state as the second optical signal. The apparatus also comprises a switching matrix comprising a plurality of first outputs of the switching matrix and a plurality of second outputs of the switching matrix, each first output of the switching matrix associated with a respective one of the second outputs of the switching matrix, the switching matrix configured to selectively direct the first optical signal to a selected one of the first outputs of the switching matrix and to selectively direct the second optical signal to the second output of the switching matrix associated with the selected first output of the switching matrix. The apparatus further comprises a plurality of beam combining apparatus, each beam combining apparatus configured to combine optical signals from a respective one of the first outputs of the switching matrix and its associated second output of the switching matrix.

Data center interconnections, which encompass WSCs as well as traditional data centers, have become both a bottleneck and a cost/power issue for cloud computing providers, cloud service providers and the users of the cloud generally. Fiber optic technologies already play critical roles in data center operations and will increasingly in the future. The goal is to move data as fast as possible with the lowest latency with the lowest cost and the smallest space consumption on the server blade and throughout the network. Accordingly, it would be beneficial for new fiber optic interconnection architectures to address the traditional hierarchal time-division multiplexed (TDM) routing and interconnection and provide reduced latency, increased flexibility, lower cost, lower power consumption, and provide interconnections exploiting scalable optical modular optically switched interconnection network as well as temporospatial switching fabrics allowing switching speeds below the slowest switching element within the switching fabric.

A method for determining a connection relationship in a switching device, including: determining, according to a number of first-stage optical interconnection units in the switching device and a number of first-stage access points in each optical cross interconnection unit, optical cross interconnection units and first target access points corresponding to a plurality of first-stage optical interconnection units; and determining, according to a number of second-stage optical interconnection units and a number of second-stage access points in each optical cross interconnection unit, optical cross interconnection units and second target access points corresponding to a plurality of second-stage optical interconnection units; where each of the first-stage access points in the optical cross interconnection unit is in communicative connection with the respective second-stage access points, so that each of the first-stage optical interconnection units is in communicative connection with the respective second-stage optical interconnection units via the optical cross interconnection unit.

According to the present invention, a variable tilt equalization device includes a first variable tilt equalizer including a plurality of first tilt equalizers, a second variable tilt equalizer including a plurality of second tilt equalizers, a first matrix switch being a multi-input/multi-output matrix switch connected to an input side of the first variable tilt equalizer, a second matrix switch being a multi-input/multi-output matrix switch configured to connect an output side of the first variable tilt equalizer and an input side of the second variable tilt equalizer to each other via a plurality of optical paths, and a third matrix switch being a multi-input/multi-output matrix switch connected to an output side of the second variable tilt equalizer.

A node for a quantum communication network, said node comprising: a quantum transmitter, said quantum transmitter being adapted to encode information on weak light pulses; a quantum receiver, said quantum receiver being adapted to decode information from weak light pulses; at least three ports adapted to communicate with at least one other node; and an optical switch, said optical switch being configured to selectively connect the quantum transmitter and receiver to the ports such that the switch controls which of the ports is in communication with the quantum transmitter and quantum receiver.

Data center interconnections, which encompass WSCs as well as traditional data centers, have become both a bottleneck and a cost/power issue for cloud computing providers, cloud service providers and the users of the cloud generally. Fiber optic technologies already play critical roles in data center operations and will increasingly in the future. The goal is to move data as fast as possible with the lowest latency with the lowest cost and the smallest space consumption on the server blade and throughout the network. Accordingly, it would be beneficial for new fiber optic interconnection architectures to address the traditional hierarchal time-division multiplexed (TDM) routing and interconnection and provide reduced latency, increased flexibility, lower cost, lower power consumption, and provide interconnections exploiting scalable optical modular optically switched interconnection network as well as temporospatial switching fabrics allowing switching speeds below the slowest switching element within the switching fabric.

An photonic circuit includes a substrate, a plurality of first light waveguides disposed on the substrate, the first light waveguides extending in a first direction, a plurality of second light waveguides disposed on the substrate and extending in a second direction intersecting the first direction, and a plurality of first micro-ring resonators disposed on the substrate. Each of the first light waveguides has an intersection with each of the second light waveguides. Each of the intersections is provided with a first micro-ring resonator of the first micro-ring resonators. Each first micro-ring resonator is configured to route signals of a respective wavelength from one of the light waveguides at the intersection to another light waveguide at the intersection.

Switching technology may be incorporated into various systems, components, and/or architectures in a fiber optic network to promote network reconfigurability and design flexibility. A signal access unit comprises an input, an output, an access port, a switch arrangement including a switch, and a controller. The switch optically couples the input to the output and not to the access port when in a first configuration, and optically couples the access port to at least one of the input and the output without optically coupling the input and the output together when in a second configuration. The controller is configured to receive an indication of a selected wavelength and to operate the switch arrangement to change the switch between the first and second configurations based on the indication of the selected wavelength.