Abstract: A network arrangement where traffic elements of network nodes are programmable. A traffic element comprises electrically controllable transceiver pool having one or more ports that are coupled to an electrically controllable optical director that has all-optical information communication paths. The transceiver pool has one or more customer connection points in addition to the one or more connection points that connect to the optical director, and is adapted to couple a signal from any of the customer connection points to the optical director, at a particular wavelength. The choices for the specific coupling within the optical director and of the wavelengths are specified by control signals that are applied to the transceiver pool and to the optical director.

Abstract: An optical network for providing a plurality of end users with video content, which includes a plurality of video head ends, each coupled to a pair of video hub offices via a plurality of diverse optical communication paths, where each hub office is coupled to a plurality of video serving offices via a pair of optical fibers arranged in a ring structure to provide a working link and a protection link, each video serving office adapted and arranged for distributing video content to a plurality of end users.

Abstract: An arrangement in a node in an optical communication network has one or more terminals 220 and/or 222 configured to provide local access to the network through the node, and an all-optical routing arrangement 202-204-206-208 configured to route optical signals among optical pathways extending from the node. The optical pathways include inter-node optical pathways (for example, pathways N and/or W) configured to carry optical signals into and out of the node to respective other elements in the network, as well as intra-node optical pathways (for example, pathway E) dedicated to carry optical signals between the routing arrangement and respective terminals so as to provide the local access to the network through the node. Placing the terminals on optical pathways allows redundancy of the terminals to avoid node isolation if a terminal fails, yet is more economical than conventional arrangements requiring a terminal for each pathway into the node.