Abstract: A synchronization architecture for a cross connect switch having an ingress stage, a center stage, and an egress stage utilizes optical interfaces and media to distribute a system clock and frame sync to the I/O modules and switch fabric so that system can reassign the source/destination of the numerous STS-1 streams. A main synchronization module encodes the frame sync within the system clock. An optical interface converts the encoded sync signal to an optical sync signal which is sent over optical media to a secondary synchronization module which extracts the encoded frame sync from the optical sync signal and recovers the system clock. The system clock may be frequency multiplied or divided as necessary for distribution to the ingress and egress switch fabrics as well as the I/O modules. The sync reference may be externally provided or derived from an optical input data signal and forwarded to the main sync module using an optical pathway.