Abstract: A network arrangement for aggregation of groups of tunable sources in a photonic network is disclosed. The network arrangement includes transmit edge elements having a plurality of tunable optical transmitters, an optical switch and a cyclic optical multiplexer, and receive edge elements having optical demultiplexers, optical switches and a plurality of optical receivers. A variety of arrangements are disclosed including protected and unprotected network architectures. The network arrangement disclosed is particularly useful for overcoming the problem of scaling a photonic network.

Abstract: A technique for wave-mixing bulk frequency conversion in a network comprising one or more channels is disclosed that enables cost-effective wavelength-conversion. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the technique may be realized by a new class of multi-log wave-mixing-cross-connects that are based on arbitrary b×b space-switching elements, where b>2. In such cross-connects, for any light-path, the worst case number of cascaded frequency-conversions is O(logb(FW)), F being the number of fibers. One benefit of the new design may be maximized when W=O(F), b=O(F), and the worst-case number of cascaded conversions is O(1).

Abstract: A technique for wave-mixing frequency translation is disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the technique may be realized as a general construction for multi-log wave-mixing unicast or multicast cross-connects, with b×b space-switching elements, where b≧2. The resulting cross-connects support all-optical frequency-conversion, and they exploit multi-stage wave-mixing bulk frequency-translation In these cross-connects, for any light-path the worst case number of cascaded frequency-conversions is O(logb W), where W is the number of wavelengths per fiber. The wavelength-converter requirements are of between O(F) and O(F logb W), per stage and per plane, where F is the number of fibers.