Abstract: Apparatus for diversely routing optical wavelengths across a point-to-point subnetwork. An optical network includes a first optical ring having at least first, second, and third nodes adjacently positioned; a second optical ring having at least fourth, fifth, and sixth nodes adjacently positioned, pairs of optical fibers link the adjacent nodes; a point-to-point subnetwork having at least first, second, third, and fourth optical fibers optically coupling the first and second optical rings. The first node is configured to route working bands across the first optical fiber to the fifth node and to route a copy of the working bands to the second node. The second node is configured to route either the copy of the working bands or a select subset of the copy of the working bands across the third optical fiber to the fourth node.

Abstract: Bidirectional wavelength cross connects include a plurality of ports, each configured to receive an input optical signals, each input optical signal having a plurality of spectral bands. At least one of the plurality of ports is disposed to simultaneously transmit an output optical signal having at least one of the spectral bands. A plurality of wavelength routing elements are configured to selectively route input optical signal spectral bands to output optical signals.