FLEXIBLE BAND TUNABLE ADD/DROP MULTIPLEXER AND MODULAR OPTICAL NODE ARCHITECTURE

摘要

An improved optical add/drop multiplexer (Fig. 1) design is disclosed which utilizes flexible band tunable filters (111, 112) and colorless demultiplexers (130) to process any contiguous group of channels. A modular optical add/drop architecture is also disclosed which allows additional processing capabilities to be added module by module in a cost-effective fashion.