Twin multicast switch
View Patent ↗Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for optical switching. An optical switch device includes a first multicast switch unit; and a second multicast switch unit, wherein each of the first and second multicast switch units respectively include: multiple optical input ports; multiple optical switches; multiple optical splitters/combiners; and multiple optical output ports.
1. An optical device comprising:
a first optical multicast switch unit comprising a drop optical multicast switch unit, the drop optical multicast switch unit comprising:
a plurality of input optical ports,
a plurality of optical splitters, each optical splitter coupled to a corresponding input optical port,
a plurality of optical switches, each optical switch having L number of selectors, wherein N selectors of the L number of selectors, N being less than L, are respectively coupled to a corresponding optical splitter of the plurality of optical splitters, and wherein (L-N) selectors are reserved for expanding a number of input optical ports coupled to the plurality of optical switches, and
a plurality of output optical ports, each optical output port coupled to an output of a corresponding optical switch of the plurality of optical switches; and
a second optical multicast switch unit comprising an add optical multicast switch unit, the add optical multicast switch unit comprising;
a plurality of input optical ports;
a plurality of optical switches, each optical switch coupled to a corresponding input optical port and each optical switch configured to selectively route an optical signal received from a corresponding input optical port to one or more optical combiners;
a plurality of optical combiners, each optical combiner coupled to each optical switch of the plurality of optical switches, and
a plurality of output optical ports coupled to a corresponding optical combiner.
2. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the first optical multicast switch unit and the second optical multicast switch unit are symmetrical.
3. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the first optical multicast switch unit is N×M and second optical multicast switch unit is A×B, where N×M is distinct from A×B.
4. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the optical switches are micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) based optical switches.
5. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein an input optical signal at a first optical input port of the first optical multicast switch unit is split into M portions by a corresponding optical splitter and distributed to each of the plurality of optical switches.
6. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein each optical switch of the plurality of optical switches in the first optical multicast switch unit receives an input from each input optical port and selects one to output to an output optical port.
7. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein an input optical signal at a first optical input port of the second optical multicast switch unit is input to a first switch of the plurality of optical switches, wherein the first switch is coupled to each of the plurality of optical combiners such that the first switch can pass the input optical signal to any one of the plurality of optical combiners.
8. The optical device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of optical splitters and the plurality of optical switches of the drop optical multicast switch unit are wideband devices thereby providing wideband wavelength independence for the plurality of input optical ports and output optical ports of the drop optical multicast switch unit.
9. An optical device comprising:
a first optical multicast switch unit comprising a drop optical multicast switch unit, the drop optical multicast switch unit comprising:
a plurality of input optical ports,
a plurality of optical splitters, each optical splitter coupled to a corresponding input optical port,
a plurality of optical switches, each optical switch coupled to each optical splitter of the plurality of optical splitters, and
a plurality of output optical ports, each optical output port coupled to an output of a corresponding optical switch of the plurality of optical switches; and
a second optical multicast switch unit comprising an add optical multicast switch unit, the add optical multicast switch unit comprising;
a plurality of input optical ports;
a plurality of optical switches, each optical switch coupled to a corresponding input optical port and each optical switch configured to selectively route an optical signal received from a corresponding input optical port to one or more optical combiners;
a plurality of optical combiners, each optical combiner coupled to each optical switch of the plurality of optical switches, and
a plurality of output optical ports coupled to a corresponding optical combiner, wherein each optical combiner of the plurality of optical combiners corresponds to one optical splitter of the plurality of optical splitters and wherein each of the corresponding optical combiner-optical splitter pairs is the same optically bi-directional device.