Low crosstalk structure for integrated OXC/OADM in WDM optical transport networks

A low crosstalk structure is proposed and analyzed for integrated optical a dd and drop multiplexer/optical crossconnect node (OXC/OADM) that implement s the function of OADM and OXC simultaneously in wavelength division multip lexing optical transport networks. For joint adding and dropping, two sets of 1 x 2 switches are placed before and after the crossconnect switches ins tead of using large crossconnect arrays. Simulation result shows that the p ower penalty can be decreased significantly in the proposed structure, espe cially when multiple channels to be dropped simultaneously. Electronic swit ches are also integrated in the node to solve the blocking problem of the a dd and drop signals. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.