This paper describes a new structure of photonic add/drop multiplexer (ADM), called optical wavelength ADM (OW-ADM), discusses the applications in multi-wavelength optical ring networks and the network characters. This scheme uses optical wavelength as addressing information of data channel and performs all-optical add/drop function at each node by sensing the wavelength, without converting the high-speed data to electronic form. The key components in OW-ADM include wavelength grating router (WGR), optical switch, optical coupler and band reject filter. The thought is based on wavelength sequence selection (WSS) property of WGR. This OW-ADM can avoid the bottlenecks associated with the convention between optical signal and electrical signal and accomplish all-optical transparent transmission. It also has the following good features: (1) all-optical self-healing; (2) dual-function of ADM and protection switching; (3) self- test function; (4) small crosstalk and small wavelength interval; (5) wavelength-reuse capability, etc.

Date Published: 30 January 1997
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 2918, Emerging Components and Technologies for All-Optical Photonic Systems II, (30 January 1997); doi: 10.1117/12.265359

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2918:
Emerging Components and Technologies for All-Optical Photonic Systems II
Emil S. Koteles; Alan Eli Willner, Editor(s)