Metropolitan photonic switch
First Claim
1. An optical switching node for a photonic network comprising:
- a photonic switch core having a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs and capable of connecting any input to any output;
a first wavelength division demultiplexer coupled to a subset of the plurality of inputs for demultiplexing an optical signal having a first multiplex density having a first wavelength spacing into optical channels;
a first wavelength division multiplexer coupled to a subset of the plurality of outputs for multiplexing any optical channels connected to it into an optical signal having a second multiplex density having a second wavelength spacing;
a multi-wavelength source for generating DWDM quality wavelengths for supplying access multiplexers with unmodulated wavelengths upon which to multiplex data packets,the second multiplex density being higher than the first; and
the photonic switch core being operable to consolidate wavelengths from access multiplexers into a dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) signal for transmission in a core network.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A photonic switch uses a cost-effective DWDM optimized switch architecture allowing the introduction of DWDM into the metro network. In order to implement this architecture cost-effective ways of implementing the optical carrier frequency/wavelength precision required for a Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing 100 GHz or 50 GHz on-grid solutions are needed. The photonic switch acts as an intermediary between the WDM density of the access portion of the metropolitan photonic network and the DWDM density of the core photonic network. The metro photonic switch introduces optical carriers that are all generated in the photonic layer adjacent to it and allocates them out to the photonic access nodes for modulation. This has the advantage of providing the optical carriers to be modulated from a centralized highly stable and precise source, thereby meeting the requirements for DWDM carrier precision, whilst generating these carriers in relatively close proximity to the modulators. Coarse WDM components can be used in the access portion of the network without adversely affecting the ability of the signal to transit the DWDM portion of the core network, since the optical carrier frequency is fixed at the centralized source and is unaffected by these components.
10 Citations
19 Claims
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1. An optical switching node for a photonic network comprising:
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a photonic switch core having a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs and capable of connecting any input to any output; a first wavelength division demultiplexer coupled to a subset of the plurality of inputs for demultiplexing an optical signal having a first multiplex density having a first wavelength spacing into optical channels; a first wavelength division multiplexer coupled to a subset of the plurality of outputs for multiplexing any optical channels connected to it into an optical signal having a second multiplex density having a second wavelength spacing; a multi-wavelength source for generating DWDM quality wavelengths for supplying access multiplexers with unmodulated wavelengths upon which to multiplex data packets, the second multiplex density being higher than the first; and the photonic switch core being operable to consolidate wavelengths from access multiplexers into a dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) signal for transmission in a core network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A photonic network comprising:
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an access node having an access multiplexer; an optical switching node for a photonic network comprising; a photonic switch core having a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs and capable of connecting any input to any output; a first wavelength division demultiplexer coupled to a subset of the plurality of inputs ford demultiplexing an optical signal having a first multiplex density having a first wavelength spacing into optical channels; a first wavelength division multiplexer coupled to a subset of the plurality of outputs for multiplexing any optical channels connected to it into an optical signal having a second multiplex density having a second wavelength spacing; a multi-wavelength source for generating DWDM quality wavelengths; the second multiplex density being higher than the first; and the photonic switch core being operable to consolidate wavelengths from access multiplexers into a dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) signal for transmission in a core network. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification