The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 03, 2002
Filed:
May. 05, 2000
Edward A. Hill, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
JDS Uniphase Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
Reduced configuration Optical Cross-Connect (OXC) switches can include N inputs to the OXC switch and N outputs from the OXC switch, where N is at least 3. The N×N OXC switch provides N! states, wherein the N! states optically couple any one of the N inputs to any one of the N outputs. The N×N OXC switch also includes a number of switching nodes that are selectively optically coupled to the N inputs and N outputs. Each of the number of switching nodes is configurable in at least one of a switching configuration and a pass-through configuration to provide selectively switched optical radiation therefrom and wherein the number of switching nodes is equal to ceiling [ln(N!)/ln(2)] to provide the N! states of the N×N OXC switch. The N×N OXC switch further includes at least one optical transmission apparatus coupled to at least two of the switching nodes. Related methods are also disclosed.