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:
Mar. 18, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 23, 1999
April Patricia Rasala, Newton, MA (US);
Gordon Thomas Wilfong, Gillette, NJ (US);
Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a strictly non-blocking WDM cross-connect that utilizes a relatively small number of wavelength interchangers. The cross-connect of the present invention comprises two fabrics and one or more wavelength interchangers that interconnect the fabrics. The fabrics are either pathwise strictly non-blocking or pathwise wide-sense non-blocking. In the former case, the WDM cross-connect is strictly non-blocking, i.e., both pathwise and wavelength strictly non-blocking. In the latter case, the cross-connect is wavelength strictly non-blocking and is pathwise wide-sense non-blocking, i.e., a routing algorithm is required to ensure that any sequence of connection requests and withdrawals can be routed without disturbing any currently routed requests. In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the cross-connect is strictly non-blocking and comprises a minimum number of wavelength interchangers, namely, 2k−1, where k is a positive integer equal to the number of input fibers and to the number of output fibers of the cross-connect. The cross-connect is capable of providing a route for any sequence of connection requests and withdrawals without having to disturb any currently routed requests and without the need for a routing algorithm.