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

Abstract A low crosstalk structure is proposed and analyzed for integrated optical add and drop multiplexer/optical crossconnect node (OXC/OADM) that implements the function of OADM and OXC simultaneously in wavelength division multiplexing optical transport networks. For joint adding and dropping, two sets of 1×2 switches are placed before and after the crossconnect switches instead of using large crossconnect arrays. Simulation result shows that the power penalty can be decreased significantly in the proposed structure, especially when multiple channels to be dropped simultaneously. Electronic switches are also integrated in the node to solve the blocking problem of the add and drop signals.