US 12,244,346 B2
Wavelength cross connect device and wavelength cross connect method
Hiroki Kawahara, Musashino (JP); Takeshi Seki, Musashino (JP); Sachio Suda, Musashino (JP); and Kohei Saito, Musashino (JP)
Assigned to Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Tokyo (JP)
Appl. No. 18/014,671
Filed by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Tokyo (JP)
PCT Filed Jul. 6, 2020, PCT No. PCT/JP2020/026497
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jan. 5, 2023,
PCT Pub. No. WO2022/009291, PCT Pub. Date Jan. 13, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2023/0275667 A1, Aug. 31, 2023
Int. Cl. H04J 14/02 (2006.01); H04B 10/291 (2013.01); H04Q 11/00 (2006.01)
CPC H04B 10/291 (2013.01) [H04J 14/0212 (2013.01); H04Q 11/0005 (2013.01); H04J 14/02 (2013.01); H04J 14/0213 (2013.01); H04Q 11/0001 (2013.01); H04Q 2011/0011 (2013.01); H04Q 2011/0016 (2013.01)] 5 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A wavelength cross-connect device configured to perform a relay process of amplifying, with an optical amplifier, optical signals in respective wavelength bands provided by demultiplexing multiple wavelength signal light into different wavelength bands for each of a plurality of paths, changing paths with a contention wavelength selective switch (WSS) having a plurality of input ends and a plurality of output ends, and outputting the optical signals to a path on an output side, the multiple wavelength signal light being provided by multiplexing respective optical signals in a plurality of wavelength bands transmitted in multiple bands through an optical transmission line including at least one optical fiber, the wavelength cross-connect device comprising:
a wavelength cross-connect (WXC) unit that includes the optical amplifier and the contention wavelength selective switch (WSS} and that is configured to perform the relay process on an optical signal in a predetermined specific wavelength band among the different wavelength bands, wherein
an input side of the WXC includes a different input WSS for each set of W input optical amplifiers included in the WXC, and
W is greater than one and represents a number of different wavelength bands among the different wavelength bands;
an input-side conversion unit, comprising a circuitry, that is disposed at an input side of the WXC unit and that is configured to convert a first optical signal in a wavelength band other than the predetermined specific wavelength band into a second optical signal in the predetermined specific wavelength band; and
an output-side conversion unit, comprising a circuitry, that is disposed at an output side of the WXC unit and that is configured to convert the second optical signal into the first optical signal,
wherein the second optical signal in the predetermined specific wavelength band that has been input directly from the input side is directly output after the relay process at the WXC unit:
wherein:
the output side of the WXC includes a different output WSS for each set of W input optical amplifiers included in the WXC, and
each different input WSS is connected to fewer than all of the different output WSSs.