Wavelength cross connect with per port performance characteristics

• US 20070009204A1
• Filed: 07/10/2006
• Published: 01/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lumentum Operations, LLC (Lumentum Holdings Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Viavi Solutions, Inc. (Lumentum Holdings Inc.)
• Inventors: Ranalli, Eliseo, Sehgal, Puja, Ducellier, Thomas, Hnatiw, Alan
• Granted Patent: US 7,321,704 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 385/24
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/12011 characterised by the arrayed waveguides, e.g. comprising a filled groove in the array section
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/12019 characterised by the optical interconnection to or from the AWG devices, e.g. integration or coupling with lasers or photodiodes coupling integrated waveguide to fibre G02B6/30, to optoelectronic element G02B6/42; monolithic integration of integrated waveguides with other optical elements G02B6/12004
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0005 Switch and router aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0024 using space switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/003 using switches based on microelectro-mechanical systems [MEMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0032 using static wavelength routers (e.g. arrayed waveguide grating router [AWGR] )
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0049 Crosstalk reduction; Noise; Power budget

Abstract

A wavelength cross connect is provided in which there is a dispersive arrangement per port for each input port and each output port. Some of the dispersive arrangements have differing characteristics so as to result in different performances at the ports. The dispersive arrangements can differ in the selection of different dispersive elements or differing coupling optics. A particular implementation features a first set of waveguide dispersive elements having first performance characteristics, and a second set of waveguide dispersive elements having second performance characteristics.

Claims

1. A wavelength cross connect comprising:

a plurality of ports comprising at least one input port and at least one output port;

for each input port, a respective dispersive arrangement;

for each output port, a respective dispersive arrangement that multiplexes any wavelength signals re-directed towards the dispersive arrangement;

a plurality of routing elements for re-directing wavelength signals between the dispersive arrangement(s) of the at least one input port and the dispersive arrangement(s) of the at least one output port;

wherein at least two of the ports are configured to have differing performances through selection of respective dispersive arrangements having differing characteristics.

2. The wavelength cross connect of claim 1 wherein for at least one input port, the respective dispersive arrangement is configured to demultiplex a multi-wavelength signal into a plurality of wavelength signals.

3. The wavelength cross connect of claim 1 wherein the at least one output port comprises at least two output ports, and wherein at least two of the output ports are configured to have differing performances through selection of respective dispersive arrangements having differing characteristics.

4. The wavelength cross connect of claim 1 wherein for each port, the respective dispersive arrangement comprises a dispersive element, and wherein at least two of the ports are configured to have differing performances through selection of dispersive elements having differing characteristics.

5. The wavelength cross connect of claim 1 wherein for each port, the respective dispersive arrangement comprises a dispersive element and coupling optics coupling the port to the dispersive element;

wherein at least two of the ports are configured to have differing performances through selection of coupling optics having differing characteristics.

6. The wavelength cross connect of claim 4 wherein the at least two dispersive elements having different characteristics are selected from a group consisting of:

gratings having at least two different orders;

arrayed waveguide gratings having at least two different path length differences;

arrayed waveguide gratings having at least two different waveguide spacings in a waveguide array output facet;

bulk gratings having at least two different line/mm characteristics;

arrayed waveguide gratings having at least two differing numbers of waveguides lit;

bulk gratings having at least two differing numbers of grooves lit.

7. The wavelength cross connect of claim 5 wherein the at least two coupling optics having different characteristics are selected from a group consisting of:

lenses with different focal lengths;

slab regions with different lengths;

apertures clipping the beam;

tapers changing beam dimensions;

collimators changing beam dimensions;

beamforming optics changing beam dimensions.

8. The wavelength cross connect of claim 5 wherein the coupling optics comprise a slab waveguide per port, and the at least two different ports have differing performance characteristics by:

providing slab waveguides that truncate a beam emitted in the front slab region in a waveguide dispersive element so that only the central portion of the beam couples to the dispersive element.

9. The wavelength cross connect of claim 1 comprising a 1×

(K+M) WSS design with 1 input port, K full resolution ports, and M reduced resolution ports, where K≧

1, M≧

1.

10. The wavelength cross connect of claim 1 comprising a (K+M)×

1 WSS design, with K full resolution input ports, M reduced resolution input ports, and a single output port, where K≧

1, M≧

1.

11. The wavelength cross connect of claim 4 wherein the dispersive elements comprise a plurality of arrayed waveguide gratings implemented on a single waveguide device.

12. The wavelength cross connect of claim 4 wherein the dispersive elements comprise a plurality of arrayed waveguide gratings implemented on two waveguide devices.

13. The wavelength cross connect of claim 12 wherein the two waveguide devices comprise a first waveguide device having arrayed waveguide gratings with a first performance, and a second waveguide device having arrayed waveguide gratings with second performance different from said first performance.

14. The wavelength cross connect of claim 13 wherein the first and second waveguide devices are substantially physically the same size, but with differing numbers of arrayed waveguide gratings on the two devices.

15. The wavelength cross connect of claim 1 wherein the performances of the ports are such that at least one port is configured to process a DWDM multiplex and at least one port is configured to produce a reduced set of wavelength channels.

16. The wavelength cross connect of claim 15 wherein the reduced set consists of a single wavelength channel.

17. The wavelength cross connect of claim 1 further comprising:

a lens system to optically connect the dispersive arrangements and the routing elements;

each dispersive arrangement is selected on a per port basis with a dispersive characteristic selected to compensate for aberations in the lens system.

18. The wavelength cross connect of claim 1 further comprising:

for each of at least one port, coupling optics and a detector, the coupling optics being configured to route part of the light being input/output at the port to the detector.

19. A wavelength cross connect comprising:

a plurality of ports comprising at least one port that functions as both an input port and an output port;

for each port, a respective dispersive arrangement;

a plurality of routing elements for re-directing wavelength signals between ports;

wherein for each port functioning as an input port, the respective dispersive arrangement performs a demultiplexing function on a respective multi-wavelength signal received at the input port;

for each port functioning as an output port, the respective dispersive arrangement performs a remultiplexing function of any wavelength signals re-directed towards that output port by the routing elements;

wherein at least two of the ports are configured to have differing performances through selection of respective dispersive arrangements having differing characteristics.

20. The wavelength cross connect of claim 19 comprising a circulator for each port functioning as both an input port and an output port to separate input and output signals.

21. A wavelength cross connect comprising:

a plurality of ports comprising at least one input port and at least one output port;

for each input port, a respective dispersive arrangement;

for each output port, a respective dispersive arrangement that multiplexes any wavelength signals re-directed towards the dispersive arrangement;

for each of a plurality of wavelength channels, a respective beam processing elements for re-directing at least part of the wavelength channel between the dispersive arrangement(s) of the at least one input port and the dispersive arrangement(s) of the at least one output port;

wherein at least two of the ports are configured to have differing performances through selection of respective dispersive arrangements having differing characteristics.