Wavelength-Selective Cross-Connect Device Having a Variable Number of Common Ports
First Claim
1. An apparatus comprising:
- a reconfigurable wavelength-selective optical router; and
a MEMS mirror array having a plurality of individually movable mirrors, wherein each of the movable mirrors is configured to receive light from or direct light to a respective one optical port in an array of optical ports and is configurable to optically couple the optical ports in at least a first configuration and a second configuration, wherein;
in the first configuration, the array of optical ports has a single common port and a plurality of plural ports that are configured as a common port and respective plural ports of a first wavelength-selective switch; and
in the second configuration, the array of optical ports has a first common port, a second common port, a first plurality of plural ports, and a second plurality of plural ports, wherein;
the first common port and the first plurality of plural ports are configured as a common port and respective plural ports of a second wavelength-selective switch; and
the second common port and the second plurality of plural ports are configured as a common port and respective plural ports of a third wavelength-selective switch.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A configurable wavelength-selective cross-connect (WSXC) device having an array of optical ports in which at least some of the ports are configurable to operate as common ports or as plural ports. The configurable WSXC device includes a MEMS mirror array whose mirrors are tiltable in a manner that enables, e.g., reconfigurations of the configurable WSXC device that result in a change of the number of common ports therein. In one possible configuration, the configurable WSXC device can operate as 1×M1 wavelength-selective switch, where M1+1≦P, and P is the total number of optical ports in the array of optical ports. In another possible configuration, the configurable WSXC device can operate as a bank of n 1×M2 wavelength-selective switches, where n is a positive integer greater than one, and n(M2+1)≦P.
-
Citations
27 Claims
-
1. An apparatus comprising:
-
a reconfigurable wavelength-selective optical router; and a MEMS mirror array having a plurality of individually movable mirrors, wherein each of the movable mirrors is configured to receive light from or direct light to a respective one optical port in an array of optical ports and is configurable to optically couple the optical ports in at least a first configuration and a second configuration, wherein; in the first configuration, the array of optical ports has a single common port and a plurality of plural ports that are configured as a common port and respective plural ports of a first wavelength-selective switch; and in the second configuration, the array of optical ports has a first common port, a second common port, a first plurality of plural ports, and a second plurality of plural ports, wherein; the first common port and the first plurality of plural ports are configured as a common port and respective plural ports of a second wavelength-selective switch; and the second common port and the second plurality of plural ports are configured as a common port and respective plural ports of a third wavelength-selective switch. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A method of configuring a wavelength-selective cross-connect (WSXC) device, the method comprising:
-
sorting P optical ports of the WSXC device into n non-overlapping sets of ports, where P is a positive integer greater than five and n is a positive integer greater than one; in each of said n non-overlapping sets of ports, designating one common port and a respective plurality of plural ports; and individually tilting tiltable mirrors in a MEMS mirror array of the WSXC device to cause a spectrally dispersive element of the WSXC device to disperse light across a beam-steering device of the WSXC device at n different positions that are offset from one another in a direction orthogonal to a dispersion direction such that each position is configured to receive light from a respective one of the n non-overlapping sets of ports. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
-
-
21. An apparatus, comprising:
-
an optical routing device that comprises an array of MEMS mirrors and a wavelength-selective optical router being optically connected to an array of P optical ports by the array of MEMS mirrors; and wherein the MEMS mirrors are configurable to connect the optical ports of the array of the P optical ports to the wavelength-selective optical router in different first and second configurations, the optical routing device being configured to operate some of the optical ports of the array of the P optical ports as a 1×
N1 first optical wavelength-selective switch in the first configuration with N1 being smaller than P and greater than one, and being configured to operate some of the optical ports of the array of the P optical ports as a 1×
N2 second optical wavelength-selective switch and a 1×
N3 third optical wavelength-selective switch in the second configuration with the integers N2 and N3 each being greater than one and where N2+N3+2≦
P. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
-
Specification