Optical switch fabric with redundancy
First Claim
1. An optical switch fabric comprising:
- an input stage;
an output stage; and
a center stage comprisinga minimum number of center switches greater than one that cause the optical switch fabric to be strict-sense nonblocking; and
at least one additional center switch to provide redundancy for the optical switch fabric, wherein the input stage, the center stage, and the output stage are coupled in a cascaded manner and each of the center switches contain microelectromechanical mirrors.
8 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An optical switch fabric with an input stage, an output stage, and a center stage coupled in a cascaded manner. The center stage includes (1) a minimum number of center switches greater than one that cause the optical switch fabric to be strict-sense nonblocking and (2) at least one additional center switch to provide redundancy for the optical switch fabric. A module is described that includes optical input and output switches coupled to an optical center stage of an optical switch fabric. The module includes an interior cavity that contains free space beams from both the optical input switch and the optical output switch. A method is described for reconfiguring a redundant optical switch into a multilevel optical switch without interrupting operation of the signals carried by the optical switch by adding additional switch components and reconfiguring the fiber interconnection between switch elements.
126 Citations
16 Claims
-
1. An optical switch fabric comprising:
-
an input stage; an output stage; and a center stage comprising a minimum number of center switches greater than one that cause the optical switch fabric to be strict-sense nonblocking; and at least one additional center switch to provide redundancy for the optical switch fabric, wherein the input stage, the center stage, and the output stage are coupled in a cascaded manner and each of the center switches contain microelectromechanical mirrors. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
Specification