Configurable optical add/drop multiplexer with partial or complete wavelength drop capability

1. A configurable optical add/drop multiplexer (C-OADM), comprising:

at least one optical switch configured to select one or more optional operational modes, wherein the at least one optical switch has an input and a first and a second selectable output;

a wavelength drop pathway in communication with the first selectable output of a first optical switch of the at least one optical switch;

a wavelength tapping pathway in communication with the second selectable output of the first optical switch;

a full channel add pathway in communication with the first selectable output of a second optical switch of the at least one optical switch; and

a partial channel add pathway in communication with the second selectable output of the second optical switch, wherein

the full channel add pathway provides a full channel added to the wavelength tapping pathway onto an unused wavelength channel, and the partial channel add pathway provides a channel added to a tapped path onto an unused channel.

2. The C-OADM according to claim 1 , wherein the operational modes include:

a drop mode;

a tapping mode;

an add mode;

an add/drop mode; and

an add/tapping mode.

3. The C-OADM according to claim 2 , wherein

the wavelength drop pathway operates when the at least one optical switch is configured to select one of the drop mode and the add/drop mode;

the wavelength tapping pathway operates when the at least one optical switch is configured to select one of the tapping mode, the add/tapping mode, the drop/tapping mode, and the add/drop multiplexer mode;

a first wavelength add pathway operates when the at least one optical switch is configured to select one of the add mode and the add/drop mode; and

a second wavelength add pathway operates when the at least one optical switch is configured to select one of the add/tapping mode and the add/drop multiplexer mode.

4. The C-OADM according to claim 3 , wherein the wavelength tapping pathway comprises:

a power splitter capable of splitting the power of the wavelength channels contained in the input optical signal, received via the second selectable output of the first optical switch, to produce two portions for each wavelength channel, each of the portions corresponding to a certain amount of power of the wavelength channel.

5. The C-OADM according to claim 4 , wherein the power splitter is a coupler.

6. The C-OADM according to claim 4 , further comprising:

a second wavelength selection device capable of separating the portion of a wavelength channel to be dropped from corresponding portions of at least one remaining wavelength channel contained in the input optical signal.

7. The C-OADM according to claim 6 , wherein the second wavelength selection device comprises one of:

a thin film filter; and

a fiber Bragg grating filter.

8. The C-OADM according to claim 7 , wherein the fiber Bragg grating filter has a tunable controller through which a wavelength that the grating reflects can be adjusted.

9. The C-OADM according to claim 6 , further comprising:

an optical attenuator capable of receiving the portion of the wavelength channel to be dropped, via the second selectable output of a fourth optical switch, and attenuating the portion of the wavelength channel before dropping the portion of the wavelength channel.

10. The C-OADM according to claim 9 , wherein the optical attenuator is a variable optical attenuator.

11. The C-OADM as recited in claim 3 , wherein the partial channel add pathway comprises:

a power splitter capable of splitting the power of both the wavelength channels in the input optical signal and a channel to be added, yielding two portions for each wavelength where each of the portions corresponding to a certain amount of power and producing an updated optical signal having the channel to be added incorporated in one of the wavelength channels in the output optical signal with partial power, wherein,

the input signal is received at the power splitter through the second selectable output of the first optical switch,

the wavelength channel to be added is received at the power splitter via the second selectable output of the second optical switch.

12. The C-OADM according to claim 11 , wherein the power splitter is a coupler.

13. The C-OADM according to claim 1 , wherein the full channel add pathway comprises:

a third wavelength selection device capable of producing a combined optical signal by incorporating an added wavelength channel with at least one wavelength channel in the input optical signal, received via the first selectable output of the first optical switch, the wavelength channel to be added being received via the first selectable output of the second optical switch; and

a third optical switch capable of being configured to allow the combined optical signal to travel through.

14. The C-OADM according to claim 13 , wherein the third wavelength selection device comprises one of:

a thin film filter; and

a fiber Bragg grating filter.

15. The C-OADM according to claim 14 , wherein the fiber Bragg grating filter has a tunable controller through which a wavelength that the Bragg grating reflects can be adjusted.

16. The C-OADM according to claim 13 , further comprising:

a directional optical transfer device capable of uni-directionally directing the wavelength channel to be added in a direction in which the input optical signal travels.

17. A consolidated information distribution system, comprising:

a consolidated information distribution center capable of sending an optical signal and aggregating signals carried on a plurality of optical channels via at least one optical fiber that transports the optical signal; and

at least one head end, each of which being capable of receiving the optical signal and obtaining content from the optical signal via a configurable optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM) as recited in claim 1 .

18. The system according to claim 17 , wherein the configurable OADM is capable of at least one of adding a wavelength channel to the optical signal, dropping a wavelength channel from the optical signal, tapping the wavelength channels contained in the optical signal, and a combination thereof.

19. The system according to claim 17 , wherein the at least one head end and the consolidated information distribution center is arranged in at least one of:

a linear configuration in which the at least one head end is arranged in a serial fashion and the optical signal is transported from the consolidated information distribution center to the at least one head end in a direction from a first head end to a last head end;

a star configuration in which the optical signal from the consolidated information distribution center is transported via the at least one optical fiber directly to every head end of the at least one head end; and

a ring configuration in which the at least one head end is arranged in a circular fashion, wherein the optical signal from the consolidated information distribution center is transported to the at least one head end in both a first direction from a first head end to a last head end and a second direction from the last head end to the first head end.

20. The system according to claim 19 , wherein

the linear configuration further comprising a second consolidated information distribution center connecting to the at least one head end arranged in the serial fashion via the at least one optical fiber, wherein the optical signal is transported from the second consolidated information distribution center to the at least one head end in a direction from the last head end to the first head end; and

the star configuration further comprising a second consolidated information distribution center connecting to the at least one head end in the star configuration via at least one optical fiber, wherein the optical signal from the second consolidated information distribution center is transported directly to every head end of the at least one head end.

21. A method for performing an operation on an optical signal with a configurable optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM) as recited in claim 1 , comprising:

configuring the configurable OADM to produce a desired configuration;

receiving, by the configurable OADM, an optical signal with at least one wavelength channel; and

performing, by at least one configurable optical add/drop multiplexer (C-OADM) module within the configurable OADM mechanism, wavelength processing on the at least one wavelength channel according to the desired configuration.

22. The method according to claim 21 , wherein said configuring comprises:

configuring a plurality of optical switches associated with the at least one C-OADM module; and

configuring at least some of the at least one C-OADM module, the at least some of the C-OADM module being selected by the plurality of configured optical switches.

23. The method according to claim 21 , wherein the wavelength processing includes at least one of:

dropping a wavelength channel from the optical signal;

adding a wavelength channel to the optical signal;

tapping a wavelength channel of the optical signal;

dropping a first wavelength channel from and adding a second wavelength channel to the optical signal at the same time;

dropping a first wavelength channel from and adding the same wavelength channel to the optical signal at the same time;

dropping a wavelength channel after the wavelength channel in the optical signal is tapped;

adding a tapped wavelength channel to the optical signal after the optical signal is tapped; and

dropping a first tapped wavelength channel from and adding a second tapped wavelength channel to the optical signal after the optical signal is tapped.

24. A method of transmitting information with an optical communication system having a consolidated information distribution framework, comprising:

configuring at least one configurable optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM) as recited in claim 1 , associated with corresponding at least one head end;

generating, by a consolidated information distribution center, an optical signal encoded with information to be distributed to the at least one head end;

sending the optical signal to the at least one head end;

receiving an optical signal at each head end; and

performing, by the configurable OADM associated with each head end, wavelength processing on the received optical signal according to the configuration of the configurable OADM to produce an updated optical signal.

25. The method according to claim 24 , wherein said configuring comprises:

configuring a plurality of optical switches associated with at least one C-OADM module within the configurable OADM mechanism; and

configuring at least some of the at least one C-OADM module, the at least some of the C-OADM module being selected by the plurality of configured optical switches.

26. The method according to claim 24 , wherein the wavelength processing includes at least one of:

dropping a wavelength channel from the optical signal;

adding a wavelength channel to the optical signal;

tapping a wavelength channel of the optical signal;

dropping a first wavelength channel from and adding a second wavelength channel to the optical signal at the same time;

dropping a first wavelength channel from and adding the same wavelength channel to the optical signal at the same time;

dropping a wavelength channel after the wavelength channel in the optical signal is tapped;

adding a tapped wavelength channel to the optical signal after the optical signal is tapped; and

dropping a first tapped wavelength channel from and adding a second tapped wavelength channel to the optical signal after the optical signal is tapped.

27. The method according to claim 24 , further comprising:

forwarding, by the head end, the updated optical signal to a next head end.

28. A configurable optical add/drop multiplexer (C-OADM), comprising:

at least one optical switch configured to select one or more optional operational modes, wherein the at least one optical switch has an input and a first and a second selectable outputs;

a wavelength drop pathway in communication with the first selectable output of a first optical switch of the at least one optical switch; and

a wavelength tapping pathway in communication with the second selectable output of the first optical switch; wherein the optional modes include:

a drop mode,

a tapping mode,

an add mode,

an add/drop mode, and

an add/tapping mode;

wherein the wavelength drop pathway operates when the at least one optical switch is configured to select one of the drop mode and the add/drop mode;

the wavelength tapping pathway operates when the at least one optical switch is configured to select one of the tapping mode, the add/tapping mode, the drop/tapping mode, and the add/drop multiplexer mode;

the first wavelength add pathway operates when the at least one optical switch is configured to select one of the add mode and the add/drop mode; and

the second wavelength add pathway operates when the at least one optical switch is configured to select one of the add/tapping mode and the add/drop multiplexer mode

wherein the wavelength drop pathway comprises:

a first wavelength selection device capable of separating a wavelength channel to be dropped from an input optical signal, received via the first selectable output of the first optical switch, and producing an updated optical signal with at least one remaining wavelength channel after a wavelength channel to be dropped is separated;

a third optical switch capable of being configured to allow the updated optical signal with the at least one remaining wavelength channel to travel through.

29. The C-OADM according to claim 28 , wherein the first wavelength selection device comprises one of:

a thin film filter; and

a fiber Bragg grating filter.

30. The C-OADM according to claim 29 , wherein the fiber Bragg grating filter has a tunable controller through which a wavelength that the grating reflects can be adjusted.

31. The C-OADM according to claim 28 , further comprising:

an optical attenuator capable of receiving the wavelength channel to be dropped, via the first selectable output of a fourth optical switch, and attenuating the wavelength channel before dropping the wavelength channel.

32. The C-OADM according to claim 31 , wherein the optical attenuator is a variable optical attenuator.