A direction transverse connection and method for switching on space and arrangement of channels based switching

摘要

The present invention provides a cross-connect switching device (100) and a method of cross-connect switching of N_f * N₁ channels to one of a plurality of output lines (201, 202) of the switching device, N_f * N₁ being equal or greater than four. The device and method includes three basic elements:1) a partial demultiplexer (20, 21) )for partially demultiplexing the channels on its input lines (111, 112) into groups of channels and individual channels;2) a space switch (18) for switching groups of channels en bloc; and3) a combiner unit (22) for combining individual channels onto one of the output lines (201 202) of the cross-connect switching device (100).;The cross-connect switching device according to the present invention may be combined with similar or dissimilar switching devices to form a larger switching device.