Abstract: Disclosed is a novel switching architecture including a dedicated switching path between each pair of ports, the dedicated switching path including a switch for selectively attenuating signals at different wavelengths independently. The architecture supports switching signals having different numbers of channels between ports in an easily upgradable switch architecture.

Abstract: Disclosed is a novel method of allocating resources within an optical network in order to establish an optical path between a first node and a second node. A query signal, proposing a wavelength and timeslot pairing is sent to switching elements along a proposed optical path from the first node to the second node. The query signal is provided along with data indicating the availability of the switching elements along the proposed path. The query signal and data are used to determine an appropriate wavelength and timeslot pairing. When a wavelength and timeslot pairing has been chosen the appropriate switching elements are instructed to support the wavelength timeslot pairing along the optical path.