Dual-source optical wavelength processor

1. An optical signal manipulation system including:

a series of ports for carrying a series of optical signals to be manipulated;

a spatial separating means for simultaneously spatially separating at least a first and a second group of light from said series of optical signals, each of said first and second group including a multiplicity of independent wavelength channels, with the wavelength channels of the first group having overlapping wavelength ranges of the wavelength channels of the second group;

a wavelength dispersion element subsequently spatially separating the multiplicity of wavelength channels of said first and second group and projecting them onto a wavelength processing means; and

wavelength processing means for separately processing each of the separated wavelengths of said first and second group, with each of wavelength channels of the first and second group being processed independently at a separated spatial location, said wavelength processing means having a series of independent wavelength processing elements, with separate wavelength processing elements simultaneously processing the wavelength channels having overlapping wavelength ranges of the first and second group.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said spatial separating means includes a polarisation manipulation element separating a first and second series of predetermined polarisations from predetermined ones of said ports and projecting said first series in a first angular direction and the second series in a second angular direction.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said spatial separating means includes a series of optical power elements offset from said ports separating at least a first and second series of predetermined optical signals from predetermined ones of said ports and projecting said first series in a first angular direction and the second series in a second angular direction.

4. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein signals processed by said wavelength processing means are transmitted back through said wavelength dispersion element, said polarisation manipulation element for output at said optical signal ports.

5. A system as claimed in claim 4 wherein the particular port to which particular wavelength channels are output is determined by the processing carried out by said wavelength processing means.

6. A system as claimed in claim 4 wherein said wavelength processing means includes a series of zones and the wavelength processing means separately manipulates the phase front of light striking each of said zones in order to control the output destination of wavelength channels striking a particular zone.

7. A system as claimed in claim 6 wherein said wavelength processing means comprises a spatial light modulator having a plurality of independently addressable pixels with said pixels being manipulated in a predetermined manner so as to manipulate the phase front striking a corresponding zone.

8. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the optical signals received by said wavelength processing means are in the form of wavelength separated elongated bands.

9. A system as claimed in claim 8 wherein the wavelength separated elongated bands are substantially collimated along their major axis and substantially focused along their minor axis.

10. A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the ratio of the width of the major axis to the width of the minor axis of the bands is equal to or greater than 5.

11. A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the width of the bands major axis is substantially 700 microns and the width of a bands minor axis is substantially 20 microns.

12. A system as claimed in claim 8 wherein said first group of wavelength channels forms a first row of wavelength separated elongated bands and said second group of wavelength channels forms a second row of wavelength separated elongated bands.

13. A system as claimed in claim 12 wherein said first and second row are substantially parallel.

14. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein said first series of predetermined polarisations is derived from orthogonal polarisations of a first series of optical signals and said second series of predetermined polarisations is derived from orthogonal polarisations of a second series of optical signals.

15. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein said polarisation manipulation element comprises, in series, a polarisation separation element for spatially separating orthogonal polarisations, a polarisation alignment element for aligning the separated orthogonal polarisations and a polarisation deflection element for angularly deflecting an optical signal in accordance with the polarisation state of the signal.

16. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said first and second group include at least one wavelength channel of the substantially the wavelength.