SCALABLE LOAD-BALANCED INTERCONNECT SWITCH BASED ON AN OPTICAL SWITCH FABRIC HAVING A BANK OF WAVELENGTH-SELECTIVE SWITCHES
First Claim
1. An optical interconnect switch, comprising:
- an optical switch fabric (OSF) having N input ports and N output ports, where N is an integer greater than one, said OSF comprising;
N 1×
M wavelength-selective switches (WSSs), where M is an integer greater than one;
N M×
1 WSSs optically coupled to the N 1×
M WSSs, wherein;
each of said 1×
M WSSs has an input port and M output ports, wherein the input ports of said N 1×
M WSSs are the N input ports of the OSF;
each of said M×
1 WSSs has M input ports and an output port, wherein the output ports of said N 1×
M WSSs are the N output ports of the OSF; and
said OSF is adapted to route optical signals from said input ports to said output ports;
one or more input line cards, each optically coupled to a corresponding input port of the OSF and adapted to generate up to N respective modulated optical signals based on a respective incoming signal, said up to N modulated optical signals being multiplexed and applied to said corresponding input port; and
one or more output line cards, each optically coupled to a corresponding output port of the OSF and adapted to receive a respective optical output signal from said corresponding output port, said optical output signal having one or more spectral components corresponding to the multiplexed optical signals applied to the input ports of the OSF by said one or more input line cards.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
According to one embodiment, an interconnect switch has an optical switch fabric (OSF) having N input ports and N output ports. The OSF has a bank of optically interconnected wavelength-selective switches and is adapted to route optical signals from the input ports to the output ports. In a fully deployed implementation, the interconnect switch has N input line cards and N output line cards. Each of the input line cards is adapted to generate N respective modulated optical signals using carrier wavelengths that are controllably selected from more than N carrier wavelengths to provide wavelength redundancy for optically connecting the input line card and any of the output line cards. In a partially deployed implementation, the interconnect switch has fewer than N input line cards and/or fewer than N output line cards. In either the fully deployed implementation or a partially deployed implementation, the interconnect switch is capable of load balancing.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. An optical interconnect switch, comprising:
-
an optical switch fabric (OSF) having N input ports and N output ports, where N is an integer greater than one, said OSF comprising; N 1×
M wavelength-selective switches (WSSs), where M is an integer greater than one;N M×
1 WSSs optically coupled to the N 1×
M WSSs, wherein;each of said 1×
M WSSs has an input port and M output ports, wherein the input ports of said N 1×
M WSSs are the N input ports of the OSF;each of said M×
1 WSSs has M input ports and an output port, wherein the output ports of said N 1×
M WSSs are the N output ports of the OSF; andsaid OSF is adapted to route optical signals from said input ports to said output ports; one or more input line cards, each optically coupled to a corresponding input port of the OSF and adapted to generate up to N respective modulated optical signals based on a respective incoming signal, said up to N modulated optical signals being multiplexed and applied to said corresponding input port; and one or more output line cards, each optically coupled to a corresponding output port of the OSF and adapted to receive a respective optical output signal from said corresponding output port, said optical output signal having one or more spectral components corresponding to the multiplexed optical signals applied to the input ports of the OSF by said one or more input line cards. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A method for routing signals, comprising the steps of:
-
at each of one or more selected input ports of an optical switch fabric (OSF), generating up to N respective modulated optical signals based on a respective incoming signal, where N is an integer greater than one, wherein the OSF has N input ports and N output ports and comprises; N 1×
M wavelength-selective switches (WSSs), where M is an integer greater than one;N M×
1 WSSs optically coupled to the N 1×
M WSSs, wherein;each of said 1×
M WSSs has an input port and M output ports, wherein the input ports of said N 1×
M WSSs are the N input ports of the OSF;each of said M×
1 WSSs has M input ports and an output port, wherein the output ports of said N 1×
M WSSs are the N output ports of the OSF; andsaid OSF adapted to route optical signals from said input ports to said output ports; multiplexing said up to N modulated optical signals into a corresponding multiplexed optical signal; and applying the multiplexed optical signal to the input port; routing the one or more multiplexed optical signals from the corresponding one or more input ports to one or more selected output ports of the OSF; and at each of said one or more selected output ports, receiving a respective optical output signal having one or more modulated optical signals corresponding to the one or more multiplexed optical signals. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification