Apparatus and method for distributed compensation of narrow optical filtering effects in an optical network
The present disclosure describes a reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer including a wavelength selective switch configured to filter wavelengths of an optical signal; and an optical equalizer, coupled to the wavelength selective switch, configured to equalize the optical signal to mitigate optical filtering effects caused by the wavelength selective switch.
1. A reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer comprising:
a wavelength selective switch to receive input at a sole input and transmit output; and
an optical equalizer, coupled to the sole input of the wavelength selective switch, to pre-equalize a spectral shape of a signal of each channel of an optical signal input to the sole input of the wavelength selective switch, by adjusting a frequency strength of each channel based on optical filtering effects caused by the wavelength selective switch and a plurality of wavelength routing devices downstream of the optical equalizer and along a transmission link to mitigate the optical filtering effects and reduce noise degradation of the optical equalizer.
2. The reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer of claim 1 , further comprising:
a plurality of wavelength selective switches; and
a plurality of optical equalizers, each optical equalizer coupled to a respective one of the plurality of wavelength selective switches.
3. The reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer of claim 1 , wherein the optical equalizer is liquid crystal on silicon based.
4. A method comprising:
receiving an optical signal at an optical equalizer;
equalizing a spectral shape of a signal of each channel of the optical signal by adjusting a frequency strength of each channel based on optical filtering effects caused by a wavelength selective switch and a plurality of wavelength routing devices downstream of the optical equalizer and along a transmission link to mitigate the optical filtering effects, reduce noise degradation of the optical equalizer, and to produce an equalized optical signal; and
transmitting the equalized optical signal to a sole input of the wavelength selective switch.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the equalizing a spectral shape of a signal of each channel of the optical signal further comprises:
mitigating distributed optical filtering effects of a plurality of wavelength routing devices along a transmission link.
6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the equalizing a spectral shape of a signal of each channel of the optical signal further comprises:
reducing noise degradation of the optical equalizer.
7. The method of claim 4 , wherein one of the plurality of wavelength routing devices comprises a wavelength selective switch.
8. A method comprising:
receiving an optical signal at an optical equalizer from a wavelength routing device; and
equalizing a spectral shape of a signal of each channel of the optical signal by adjusting a frequency strength of each channel based on optical filtering effects caused by a wavelength selective switch and a plurality of wavelength routing devices downstream of the optical equalizer and along a transmission link to mitigate the optical filtering effects, reduce noise degradation of the optical equalizer, and to produce an equalized optical signal output from the optical equalizer for transmission to a sole input of the wavelength selective switch.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the equalizing a spectral shape of a signal of each channel of the optical signal further comprises:
mitigating distributed optical filtering effects of the plurality of wavelength routing devices downstream of the optical equalizer and along a transmission link.
10. The method of claim 8 , wherein one of the plurality of wavelength routing devices comprises a wavelength selective switch.
11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the equalizing a spectral shape of a signal of each channel of the optical signal is performed by an optical equalizer, the optical equalizer being liquid crystal silicon based.