Telecommunications switches are presented, including expandable optical switches that allow for a switch of N inputsM outputs to be expanded arbitrarily to a new number of N inputs and/or a new number of M outputs. Switches having internal switch blocks controlling signal bypass lines are also provided, with these switches being useful for the expandable switches.

Example embodiments of the present invention relate to An optical node comprising of at least two optical degrees; a plurality of directionless add/drop ports; and at least one wavelength equalizing array, wherein the at least one wavelength equalizing array is used to both select wavelengths for each degree, and to perform directionless steering for the add/drop ports.

Methods and systems enable optimized placement of wavelength shifters in optical networks. The wavelength shifters may include O-E-O regenerators for a single wavelength and all optical wavelength shifters for one or more wavelengths. An auxiliary graph is used to represent various links in a provisioned optical path. By applying cost values to each of the links, different types of optimizations for network resource utilization may be realized.

An arrayed optical amplifier includes: at least one first amplifier including a first excitation light source controlled to a first temperature; at least one second amplifier including a second excitation light source controlled to a second temperature different from the first temperature; and a control circuit coupled to the at least one first amplifier and the at least one second amplifiers.

An optical device includes a first optical port connected to a first optical fiber, and a second optical port connected to a second optical fiber. The optical device further includes first optical components that switch first optical traffic carried via a first set of optical channels from the first optical port to the second optical port, and second optical components that switch second optical traffic carried via a second set of optical channels from the second optical port to the first optical port. The second set of optical channels includes different optical channels than the first set of optical channels. The optical device also includes a receiver that coherently detects portions of the first optical traffic and the second optical traffic, and converts the detected portions of the first and second optical traffic to electrical signals for delivery to a node or network external to the optical device.

A network element comprises a light source generating an optical signal having a USP with a USP bandwidth, an ASE source generating ASE noise, a WSS partitioning the ASE noise into a series of ASE passbands comprising a default bandwidth, an allocated start frequency, and an allocated end frequency, a processor and a memory storing instructions to: mark the ASE passband for deactivation or adjustment based on a comparison of spectral slices of the USP and spectral slices of each ASE passband such that for fully overlapping set of spectral slices the respective ASE is marked for deactivation and for partially overlapping sets of spectral slices, the respective ASE is marked for adjustment so long as a minimum slice threshold is met, otherwise the respective ASE is marked for deactivation; deactivate or adjust the ASE passbands based on their respective marking; and ramp the one or more user signal passband.

Telecommunications switches are presented, including expandable optical switches that allow for a switch of N inputsM outputs to be expanded arbitrarily to a new number of N inputs and/or a new number of M outputs. Switches having internal switch blocks controlling signal bypass lines are also provided, with these switches being useful for the expandable switches.

The concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to alarm correlation and ticketing for reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) networks. According to one aspect disclosed herein, a ROADM controller can create, based upon data associated with a plurality of ROADM network elements operating in a ROADM network, a graph of the plurality ROADM network elements. The ROADM controller can retrieve a plurality of alarms from at least a portion the plurality of ROADM network elements, associate the plurality of alarms with at least the portion of the plurality of ROADM network elements, and associate a direction of each alarm with a corresponding service direction. The ROADM controller can eliminate any alarms with a time stamp outside of a same time window. The ROADM controller can then determine that any remaining alarms are associated with a root cause of a failure within the ROADM network.

A method for a scalable Reconfigurable Optical-Add Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) includes determining a plurality of channels at a ROADM node in an optical network will ingress and egress at another ROADM node in the optical network, such that the plurality of channels are able to share a same physical routing in the optical network; interfacing the plurality of channels at a degree in the ROADM node, such that the plurality of channels are connected to the another ROADM node in the optical network; adding and dropping the plurality of channels at the ROADM node with corresponding modems; and pre-combining the plurality of channels onto a common port between the degree and the corresponding modems, such that the plurality of channels connect to the degree together in a single connection. An add/channel count of the ROADM node is higher with the pre-combining.

Disclosed herein are methods and systems for correcting power excursions. One exemplary network element may be provided with a processor; a first line port; a flexible ROADM module including a wavelength selective switch, a multiplexer, and one or more control block; a second line port; and a memory storing an orchestrator application and processor-executable instructions. Responsive to receiving a first signal indicative of an impending network state change, the processor-executable instructions cause the processor to pause all power adjustments by the control block on the flexible ROADM module and save at least one power set point value for each active passband from a first optical signal multiplexed into a second optical signal; and responsive to receiving a second signal indicative of the network state change, adjust an optical power of each active passband from the first optical signal multiplexed into the second optical signal using the power set point values.